Trouble Maker
by yinyang80
Summary: Busy streets, even after the dark, and one busy little girl, in a game of cat and mouse. "I run this show." The clock ticks, while the lycoris unfolds - until the morning comes.
1. Paper-Chasing

**Trouble Maker**

* * *

**Genre:** romance, mystery, action

**Pairing:** Kuroh x OC

**Summary: **Even in the world of the clans in Shizume City, Nobody couldn't hold this stray down. She's so bad, so bad, then she's so good, even for one who never wanted to go back to the blue city. Title inspired by the song by Hyun Ah.

* * *

**Chapter 1**: Paper-Chasing

* * *

**December 4, 10:00 pm**

She does not want to go back to the blue city.

She calls it blue back then when she was a kid, all innocent and scrawny. She thought the blue city was made out of invincible crystals when she was younger, and had no ideas of the brawny. The tall towers await her, in the flesh of the blue sea raised in the sky. It overlooks the crystal village, larger than life, honor's own high. But the crystalline blue is not what makes it haunt her in her sweetest nightmares. The city's eyes are the things that chase her nights, the blinking yellow pairs.

Under the faceless lights, the plain décor of a typical country restaurant, we are inside the plain regions that isolate themselves from the modern and urban. Small droplets of running water decorate the glass window and wall, sleek as a cooking pan. The smell of hot _ramen _noodles ooze, oily and warm, and fill the air, which earlier has been an egg: round, pregnant-seeming and yet white, visually unsatisfying to look at.

Playing at a background level volume, was the song _Am I Supposed To Be Sorry_. Korean but very sentimental.

"Ahh, so you say now I have to go back there?" Hers is a voice that is clear amongst the thousands that yell to be heard.

A woman, no – a woman-child, with a male person in front of her, sitting at a Denny's.

"Yes. You have your orders."

"As does him." The pretty pointed little chin points to the lonely figure standing by the door of the restaurant.

"_**He**_ should do it, he's the vassal."

"You also have your place if you think of it. You two are equal. He is the one who was handpicked."

"Yes." She hangs her head.

The shape acknowledges her. Polite and robotic, almost funny in a sense.

Her fellow speaker lowers his voice.

"You know, my dear, you should go there yourself, before _**he**_ does. I think you are better suited to such a task. Not him."

She snickers.

"Me?" The doubt rises in her voice.

"Of course, you. You are more trained in such tasks."

"I am bound to serve this person whoever he is. It is his duty; I follow orders assigned to me officially, not bestowed upon. My duty is twice blest, it is a grace and flows directly from the King. I did not get such an order."

"But had the target been a truly evil entity, then it would be best for you to do it. Nobody can hold the target down. You yourself always prided yourself on the fact one day you would stop whatever harms our King, the one you devoted yourself to. It is your chance."

"You really think so?" She casts a look at the shadow, her eyes dim.

"Of course. Our King always prided himself in training you!"

"Can't nobody else hold it down?"

"Can't nobody? You, my dear, rise from the sun. You have to shut this threat down. If he were to do it, then it would be too slow."

"Then this is settled. I want it done now. Nothing will take me done now."

"Then you leave tonight?"  
"Of course I am."

"That's very quick. How can you trust yourself?"

A scowl.

"I'd do it myself. I have to take it to the top, even if I have to face all of the Kings at my feet. I know I'd do it."

"No one's stopping you for now, but keep in mind that all the Kings will fight with you. This could turn into a war. And you know, wars, they take anyone. Even the strongest of them all can fall to a war."

"How about the King himself?"

"If the King is strong enough or the King is selfless enough to be a decoy."

"An ideal King does not simply give up himself, sir. To be a king, you must please everyone so you cannot be forced upon to give up yourself."

Another chuckle.

"Let her go, she might do a better job," one yawned. "Besides, _**he**_'s too kind, as we all know. She, on the other hand, is stronger than him. She can kill, alright, and she simply won't complain."

"That's because she hasn't seen any blood yet. She doesn't know how HOMRA operates."

"I don't think HOMRA will care when they spot her. There's been no threat of war as far as I am concerned."

"She's as fiery as the HOMRA is." One chuckle.

"She's harmless. She likes to fight and eat is all."

"You're making her nervous."

She raised her hand, her eyes were as sensual as the steel hidden under the folds of her clothes.

"Shh. Don't be too noisy. _**He**_'ll notice," she chided, trying to keep her voice down low.

"Promise us," one intoned. "Promise us you'll track him down. Promise us you'll go further than he could. Promise us nobody could stop you. Promise us you'll be safe."

She snorts.

"I need not promise."

"Please. We need enough confirmation."

"Remind us why you are doing this."

"I don't need to," she replied, fire in her eyes. "It's enough I will let everyone know I run this show, you know. They'll think I'm bad, I'm bad but I'm good. He moves too slow, you know."

"Bad, bad, then I'm so good, good," one echoed, looking at her.

"Do you promise?"

She raised her right hand, knowing it was all-too inevitable.

"I do. I promise in the name of the King I serve, who I am devoted to. I promise to track down the next King, and lest he turn out otherwise slay him, if necessary, to fight for and be strong, to not be caught, to not catch the attention of the other Clans, to be loyal and fervent, in the name of the King I serve, who is gone now: in the name of Ichigen Miwa-sama. Let everyone else who serves him who is now here witness my promise. Help me, God."

"You didn't mention your name."

"I don't need to." Her eyes closed. "Ichigen-sama knows me as well as I know myself. Know thyself, said the wise, and he will never be lost. Ichigen-sama has known me since I was young."

"Very well."

She nods and walks away, a figure wrapped in a long and heavy fur-lined red jacket, ripped black leggings, and black combat boots, her eyes as heavy as the steel she holds. Her gaze is far away, as remote as the light is when it is night. She is walking towards the blue city, she knows, and that she has to travel. Nobody else has to run after; she is on her own and while the clock strums as impatient as lust, she has to catch it: the vision of rejection lying ahead of the wastes she expects in the blue city.

The door is nearby, and she rushes –

A hand stops her, blocking her body, and she meets eye contact with a pair of dark ones. Long black hair, and a sword at his side.

"Where do you think you are going? Ichigen-sama had orders for you to wait."

"Apparently, I have other orders, sir. You are not his only vassal. Besides, I'm going to take a walk." She raised her eyes to meet his, trying to convince him. Chrome hearts and the fendi furs, dipped in shit he would never hear – all she had. "He never ordered I be barred from walks. Ichigen-sama knows me too well."

"I have to go with you."

"You're not my nanny. Don't let it turn into a hot issue, sir." She pushed her arm past him. She had to get away now.

"I'm only watching you. He instructed me to take care of you now he was gone."

She spat. Inwardly, she cursed him.

"Let me go! I can take care of myself!" Her voice broke, and rose. Her arms shook. "PLEASE! I beg you! I…."

"You…what?" His deep voice softened.

"I…have to go back to the city. I promised Ichigen-sama…" Her voice was more choked, and she was finally halfway the door.

He lifted her chin to look in his eyes.

"You promised him… what?"

"I promised him I would go back to study Baking. He always enjoyed my baking, you know. I promised him I'd get a boyfriend and be nicer. More to your taste…"

"Very…well." Reluctantly, the young man let her hand go free.

"Thank you," she managed, trying to pull it off natural. "For your kindness, my lord…" She knelt, and when he pulled her up, she was ready.

_There! I'm pulling it off!_ Inwardly, she took a deep breath of air. The next part was going to be so disgusting.. "Sir…." She squeaked, and pulled on his shirt, to come closer. "For your kindness to me, I will give you my own…"

She dragged him closer –

Their lips met.

As soon as the thing was over, she quickly ran away.

The thing was repulsive but she found herself irritatedly blushing as she speed-walked away.

Part 1 was over.

* * *

- / -

**December 5, 3:30pm, Shizume City**

The alleys were one of the most unlikely places for a story. They take you to a different world. The streets were a blank canvas of the grayscale that surrounded them, usually illuminatd by occasion by the pretty red of the yakuza and the clans. In Shizume City, they're more than the simple grayscale of rough and the thug life.

These gangs and yakuza are the rascals of the city. They are eyesores, rising from the sun in this city. In a flash of light and glass and crystals, they are the rough ones whose roughness proves not everything is artificial and fragile in the blue city. They're known to be hotheads, easy to rouse up in fights. The men who take beatings as is, with the necessary roughness. They rule the show of the puppet string show that operates after the dark.

Not all of them are rascals. There are black sheep, you know. The weakest, as others state. They're the quiet ones. There are a lot of variations, in this type. This black sheep usually can be the strongest – or in some cases, the kindest of them all.

Such is the physics of the HOMRA in the form of Tatara Totsuka.

He has old men's hobbies, as Yata blatantly puts it. He cooks, he might as well clean, and he likes bonsai. And for now, he's gotten a new camera, and trying skateboarding. The guy performs, but he's something compared to those K-pop idols: he's a Roy Kim in the making.

_Click._

_Click._

Tatara starts his day with a picture and ends it in them. He's a bored guy, you see, but today has got to be the surprise of his life. It's after lunch, and he's going visual sightseeing with his camera.

A rustle.

Tatara held the camera in his hands nervously, and then pushed the button to take a picture.

_Click._

Another rustle.

"Hello?"

He took a nervous step, as the rustle grew more silent. The rustle had to be someone. He clicked the camera, trying to check if the person could be more visible with his camera.

"Hello?"

His foot landed on the smoother texture of the pathway, to the main streets of Shizume City.

A canopy of birds flew over.

"Hello? Is anybody here?" he called.

His fingers clicked the buttons.

_Click._

_Click. _

Sighing, he took more pictures.

A girl letting her balloons go.

_Click._

An old woman holding flowers.

Then somewhere – at a magazine shop, a girl sat on the desk of the cashier. Her hair was messy and cut weirdly, a nice color of blue green. Her eyes were wide and a nice shade of purple, framed by long lashes. She had a fringe parted on the right side, and her sidelocks reached to her shoulders cut in a bob style. The hair beyond her ears reached to her chin, blunt and straight. Her clothes seemed odd, too: red blazer with fur at the neckline, ripped denim leggings and black combat boots. She had plenty of metal rings and she had a scarf made of metal chains hoisted on her head. What caught him was the almost tired expression on her angry face.

A pallid face, pale, and with a wide forehead that the bangs covered. A nice nose, full lips, and face the shape of an oval. She really had a face he ought to take a picture of.

_Click_. Tatara grinned to himself. Perhaps Yata could finally get a girlfriend.

"HEY!"

Tatara jumped, and his camera fell - and a pair of aristocratic-looking hands with one of the longest hands he had ever seen caught it.

"Thank you," he murmured, and when he looked up, he stifled a gasp.

It was the mystery girl he took a picture of just a minute ago. In close-up, she was statuesque, intimidating. She was tall for a girl, with the appearance of a model yet she carried herself like a yakuza member. Her fingers were very tapered and long, but they were streaked with some white liquid… Mayo? Dip? Condiment? Her face was quite attractive enough, Tatara thought, if she was to be really dressed up all nice.

"Why are you staring at me?" she demanded, her voice cruel-sounding, but blunt enough. "_**And**_ taking pictures of me? I'm not a model, sir!"

Tatara jumped again.

"Hey! Calm down!" he cried. Who knew someone so tall could be so blunt like this?! "I'm just taking pictures!"

"Fuck that, then," she declared, shoving the camera away from him. "This will be the last time you will see your beloved camera!"

"Hey, I'm sorry, miss!"

Her eyes blazed passionately purple. "Then care to explain why you're taking pictures of me!"

"It's a hobby, I like taking pictures! Besides, I took a picture of you because you're interesting to look at. Wouldn't you be so flattered?"

"I don't care for my looks, sir!" she growled.

The rumble of a hungry stomach ensued – and it came from her.

"You're hungry," Tatara announced. "It's best we talk this over a nice meal, can we? Did you eat already?"

At the prospect of food, she lit up.

She shook her head.

"I just arrived in the city about an hour after lunch," she muttered darkly. "I still didn't."

"Then it'd be an honor to take you to lunch, -"

"Ishida." She mustered her name manfully. "Ishida. name is Ishida Saika.*"

"Then I'll be glad to, Ishida-san."

He offered his hand to her, and Ishida stared at it. Reluctantly, she took it.

* * *

- / -

**December 5, 4:30 pm**

He treated her to the nearest ramen house, since he assumed she'd be eating sparingly, considering her sleek frame. Ichiban's.

However, he was proven wrong. Once he ordered, she started to but in. She wanted siomai, and a large bowl of pork ramen with the complementary miso soup and a large bottle of red iced tea.

When the orders were served, she ate like a pig. She shoved the food down her throat the way he saw Mikoto fight with his Aura. When she began to grab her chopsticks with her long fingers, she seemed like a polite and well-bred lady, but how she ate! She was a greedy little girl, who lived and breathed YOLO. Yep, like she did You Only Live Once. And she did it very well. Her eyes were purple flames that all consumed everything in its sight. She seemed to be rated AH or DH – Always Hungry or Dead Hungry.

"Ishida-san?"

"Yes?" She looked up and wiped her mouth with a handkerchief.

"Tell me why you are here and what happened so far to you."

"Oh, I just came here to go to Baking school," she quickly answered, sure of herself. "I left on a last minute because of well, family issues. My family split up, and my parents got divorced."

"That must be very difficult for you."

"Yes, it is."

"How old are you? Where are you going to stay?"

"I'm seventeen," Ishida replied politely and put a piece of some siomai. "I really don't know where, but I can manage fine on my own, -"

"Totsuka. Totsuka Tatara."

"Yes, Totsuka-san."

"Why not stay with me for a while, Ishida-san while you're going to baking school?" Tatara beamed. "I hope you don't mind living in a house full of men. You only have to pass the test to stay with us, though."

"Are you sure you're fine with it? You barely know me," Ishida pointed out, and gobbled mouthfuls of ramen.

"Really, I'm fine with it," Tatara assured her. He looked at her suspiciously. "Don't you have any other clothes and things while you're staying here in Shizume City?"

Ishida shook her head.

"I told you already: it was a last minute decision with my parents. My mother told me to get clothes here, but I already got lost. Shizume is so big. It's been a long time since I've been here, Totsuka-san. I'm not even sure if my uncle even lives here anymore. I used to live with him until I relocated away. My parents wanted me closer to them."

"How many years have you been away?"

"Ten years, I believe."

Tatara inwardly winced. "Don't worry. Ten years is really a long time. What's your uncle's name? I could have him tracked down."

"Track down?" A look of shock spread on her face.

"Yep. I could have him, if I wished."

"Suzuhara Riku. He used to work as a bartender in a bar called Hiei."

"Hiei's shut down now," Tatara confirmed. Hiei was already shut down; it used to operate on the building next to the HOMRA bar. It was bought for some karaoke bar. "But I'm not sure what happened to your uncle."

"Anyway, Ishida-san, all you have to do is meet the people you're going to stay with. If you decide to settle for a longer period of time, you need to talk to the leader."

"How many are you, anyway?"

"Twelve, if you include the leader. Don't worry, he might understand."

"When do I get to meet this leader, anyway?"

"Tonight, if you don't mind getting going to a bar."

"Fine. What about my things?"

"We'll take care of them."

* * *

- / -

**December 5, 7:07 pm, HOMRA bar**

Alcohol was an avid pleasure not for the fainthearted. But Hyorin had never been classified into the fainthearted. If it weren't for Totsuka-san, she might have never entered the bar at all. She was seventeen and still below the legal age but she didn't care; she was no one's for now. Her lies were taking effect so quickly, and all because she had chosen to leave what she knew for the blue city.

"I'm going to get a drink," Hyorin announced on arrival, noticing the arrays of people lining up, some partying, most ordering drinks.

"But Ishida –"

Saika ignored him and got straight to order.

"I'd like to order a cocktail, sir," she called to the bartender, a suave man with blond hair. "A Green Vesper, please."

"One Green Vesper coming right up."

He handed her the drink, she took it.

It tasted good. It tasted of freedom and she was relieved.

"Tatara-san, is she your girlfriend?" the bartender addressed to Totsuka. Totsuka smiled and shrugged.

"She's too young," the bartender laughed.

"It's not like that," Totsuka explained. "She needs somewhere to go. She got lost and we don't know where her folks are supposed to be."

"So you're taking her in?"

"For a time."

"You know, Mikoto needs to know."

Saika quickly gulped her Green Vesper drink.

What had she gotten into?

Her cellphone rang, and she quickly checked it.

**KUROH Y.**

_Where are you?_

Saika scowled and closed the Message folder. She got to her Contacts list and quickly searched for him.

There.

One click and Delete was there.

He had to forget her so she could concentrate on her mission. Besides, he was no boss of hers. He had to retrieve Kotowari first.

Another urgent ring.

_I thought you said you would take a walk. A walk doesn't last a day._

Saika shut her phone off in frustration. URGH. _Better get a new phone, dammit._

Another message.

_I'm on my way there._

Damn. She had to go now.

"Hey, Ishida-san!" called Totsuka, waving his arms frantically. "I need to introduce you to someone, meet Mikoto Suoh, he's the leader of our group –"

"I'm really sorry, Totsuka-san but I have to leave." Saika grit her teeth. She lowered her head. "I can't stay here for now."

She started to leave.

"WAIT! What about your photo-"

"Save it! Some other time!"

With that, Saika left the bar, dragging her dirty self off the HOMRA bar.

* * *

**Notes:** First chapter! I hope you enjoy and that I didn't make the peeps too OOC and you enjoy Hyorin as much as I do. Please review! 3

* - I edited her name, since Hyorin is a Korean name.


	2. Ice Cream

**Trouble Maker**

**Genre:** mystery, suspense, romance

**Pairing:** Kuroh x OC

**Summary:** Even in the world of the clans in Shizume City, Nobody couldn't hold this stray down. She's so bad, so bad, then she's so good, even for one who never wanted to go back to the blue city.

**Chapter 2: Ice Cream**

**December 6, 12:00 am, Shizume City, Paradisu Ice Cream Shop**

"Where did you go? Mikoto was ready to talk and everything, but then you suddenly ran off." The chain of words ran from Totsuka's lips, the white noise from it echoing in the small room.

Tatara was really tired, but he didn't wish to show it. After a few hours, he had taken to finding her again, and he had asked Anna Kushina to track her down. The girl with the bluish green hair that was cut short, the girl who had caught his camera and almost never gave it back. But thanks to Anna, he had happily located Ishida, alone again, this time, under a tree in Shizume City. She was still wearing her old clothes, and this time, her jacket had a few rips on it. There was dirt all over her, and she seemed to be quite weary although she was doing a great job of hiding it with her cold and outspoken self.

"I…" Ishida began.

"What? Can't you explain it clearly?" Tatara raised a brow at her with concern. "You really look like a trainwreck. Look in the mirror for a change. I really thought things would be smooth-going, until you said you had to leave. In fact, I was already going to settle the arrangements with Mikoto."

She grit her teeth.

"I… I had to leave," she stated again. Her eyes widened. "I was scared… I promise, please. Someone's after me after I left my parents… So I had to go!"

Tatara rubbed the back of his head. "Someone's after you? Why didn't you tell me so?" He laughed. Ishida-san seemed such a funny person at times, no doubt.

"Yes! It's my…" Ishida closed her eyes then opened them again. Her fists balled. "My…"

"Your what? Friend? Girlfriend?" Tatara pressed.

"My…ex-boyfriend," she burst out. She seemed really rattled by this man, whoever he was.

Tatara, for a few moments, did not know whether to act, to cry, to yell at her, shake her or just stare at her. Maybe it was expected a girl like Ishida would have a boyfriend chasing after her. She had a nice figure, with a tall frame but her curves were undefined because of the way she wore her clothes, and she had a nice face shape and good skin, very clear. And she was seventeen, too. Most Japanese had relationships her age, did they not? Almost out of pity for her, Tatara reached his arm out and rubbed her back.

"Tell me about your ex-boyfriend. Why would he follow you all the way here? Hey, if you love a person, you let them go and be happy for you? I should have guessed you've broken a few hearts in the country, huh?"

Ishida scowled and folded her arms across her chest. "We met two years ago in the seaside in Okinawa, I was in there for vacation, and we did click, you know. He liked me, and when I came back for school, he was the new student. Eventually, we became a couple but trust me, a week after my parents told me their decision to have a divorce, we broke up. He wanted to sleep with me, I said I wasn't ready yet and we fought. I also left because of him, and he still wants me back."

"How did you know he wants you back?"

"Last night, he sent me a text message. He said he was on his way here to bring me back. Against my will. I knew it."

"That's more the reason you have to stay with HOMRA."

"HOMRA?" She seemed cautious, a panther ready to attack.

Tatara nodded confidently. "HOMRA. That's the name of the bar last night. It's named after my group. Ishida-san, I really need to explain a lot to you."

"Then do it now."

"HOMRA is my group, and I'm willing for HOMRA to take you in for a while, if our King approves of you. You don't need to be a member; you're just going to be under our protection for a while so that you can study baking in peace in Shizume City, and also that your ex won't be able to touch you." Tatara scanned her face, fiery and clear-complexioned underneath the grime. "Anyway, if you have to be with HOMRA for awhile, and hide from your ex, you have to change a few things too." He smiled.

A new addition to HOMRA wouldn't hurt so much. Except that she wasn't really going to be an official member, more just a pet, a ward, in the language of the medieval peeps. Anna would finally get some girly time. Mikoto would enjoy her presence and Yata would meet his match. The bar would get more encores of Green Vesper drink. And they'd all try on her new baking stuff.

"Change a few things?" Ishida raised a brow. "Excuse me, I'm fine by the way I am!"

Tatara didn't flinch. "You're too fiery. Anyway, you look like a wreck. Your hair's so messy and unruly, even if it's short. You're full of dirt. I'd bet a million yen you slept on the streets literally."

She blushed darkly. "Yeah, I did."

"What did you eat?"

"I bought a Big Mac. Told you I can take care of myself."

"Ishida-san, there are rapists on every corner."

"Hn."

"Ishida."

She looked away.

"Saika, can you please look at me?"

Instead of submitting so easily, she stared him down. She had hot blood, like the HOMRA members. Her jaw hardened, and he swore he could feel some seriously strong Aura she held within her. For that moment, his view of her as a fly model girl shifted to a woman warrior. Her eyes were a defiant purple.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT, TOTSUKA-SAN, I'M TELLING YOU!"

She hit the table hard, and it caused a loud vibration across the wood. Suddenly, it seemed to make sense for Tatara to see she was no ordinary street-smart stray.

"Then what should I call you, Ishida-san? Saika-chan?" As he spoke, he felt nervous as hell. Her temper was ill and matched HOMRA's signature color.

In the blink of an eye, she grabbed his collar. Her face twisted. She emitted danger. Fear. Anger. Rage. A quick and ill temper made her a destructive force of fire, of some Aura she hid.

"NOT SAIKA-CHAN!"

"Then… what do you suggest, if not Saika?"

"Call me Sai. Not Saika. It makes me feel like some damned stupid feminine idiot." Her grip loosened. "I'm already a mess as it is. I dislike girly stuff, do you hear me?"

"Sai, Sai-san," Tatara said slowly, trying the new nickname on his tongue. The sound played together nicely. Sai sounded neutral enough. "Sai-san, I take it, then?"

She nodded.

"You eaten anything yet, Sai-san?"

"I bought myself a cup of ramen. Spicy flavor. I did sleep on the streets, but there was some scuffle. My clothes got ripped."

"Do you have any bag with you?"

"Yep, it's a small one. It has my wallet, cellphone, iPod, Swiss knife. A scarf, too, and that's what's left."

"What about lunch?"

"I ate already. I ate meat and ramen."

Tatara raised a brow at her. "You really love to eat, don't you? Aren't you worried that you'll get bad health? It's really about time we take you in, Sai-san."

Ishida sighed.

"Very well, then. I really don't want to be a burden. Please."

Tatara fingered a strand of her deep bluish green hair.

"Your hair's choppy," he began. "I don't know really what to do about your appearance, Sai-san. Especially since your ex is looking all over for you, you know. He knows you. What you look like. Maybe it's up to Mikoto after all."

"Mikoto-san?"

"He's our King." Tatara spoke fervently. "He is a good man with a big heart, Sai-san. I think you'd fit in with us. Mikoto-san will approve, I hope."

"Is Mikoto-san kind?"

"Yes. Very much, Sai-san."

"So he's the King."

"Yes."

"Is there anything you and your girlfriend would like to order?" a male voice broke out of nowhere.

Tatara smiled to himself.

"Ice cream. I'd like a banana split. How about you, Sai-san?" he asked her, who was looking at the menu with interest. Glutton.

"I'd like a large bowl of strawberry and vanilla ice cream and a large mug of chocolate milk," Ishida ordered firmly, her eyes shining with the thought of food, no doubt. He'd have to warn Mikoto, no doubt, about her temper and her gluttony. A hard mouth to feed, so demanding.

"Sure."

When the waiter left to carry out the orders, Tatara found himself scanning Ishida again, under the title Sai.

Dirty, gluttonous, ill-tempered girl, he thought fondly, with her flashing purple eyes and choppy short bob hime cut hair cut so short to her chin. Her long legs and ripped leggings and the metal rings on her fingers. She seemed like a fragile model sitting there quietly.

"I'm sure Mikoto-san won't refuse his service to a lady like yourself. He is a true man, and a chivalrous King. He'll protect you."

"I can fight well," was her brusque reply.

"You are not a member of HOMRA. I've never seen you fight, much less wield a weapon."

"Tsk."

Tatara pulled out an envelope from his bag and his camera. He laid it on the empty rectangle wood that separated them.

"I thought you'd want to see this."

He slid a photo from the envelope. On the photo was a young woman sitting on the desk inside an open magazine shop. Her hair, though short and choppy, blew with the wind. Her eyes were a passionate violet hue. Her dark turquoise hair shone, and there was the form of a charm that resembled silk, steel and sexy all together. The lighting was bright, and crystalline, that both blended in and contrasted the backdrop of the blue city around her. Various signs of the _hallyu_ and _harajuku_ were evident in her clothes: ripped leggings, the metal scarf, combat boots, headphones, and the denim shirt covered by the furred red jacket.

"That's me?" Ishida seemed surprise.

Tatara held up the photograph. "It came out good. Izumo-san thought you're pretty photogenic and striking-looking, although he complained at first he thought you were a boy."

A smile almost graced her lips. She seemed peaceful, for once.

"He thinks you could find work as a model."

Ishida raised a brow.

"Why should I? I like baking."

"You obviously love food," Tatara laughed. "No wonder you like baking so much. Any man would be happy to taste your pastries."

"No man has pleased me to do such. I've never even had my first kiss. I dislike men of my age."

"You're seventeen. Come on, Sai-san."

She looked away.

For a few minutes, it became a largely pregnant silence. The waiter arrived with their food; Tatara was glad that the bill wasn't included. He had a gut feeling that the bill would be very large. He'd spent enough time eating with Ishida to know she was the most gluttonous of eaters.

"Do you know that ice cream brings people together?" Ishida asked, breaking the silence, passionate and alive and burning.

"What makes you say so, Sai-san?"

"In relationships, most girls who get dumped by guys enjoy eating ice cream. Most dates are held by eating ice cream. And also, every date that involves ice cream is successful."

"Who taught you such a thing, Sai-san?" Tatara laughed.

"Myself," she said proudly. "When I was a kid. It's one of the few things that I believed when I was younger that I still believe in today."

She lifted her spoon, whipped a chunk of the creamy and cold delicacy and put it to her mouth. She ate it slowly, savoring every touch and taste, sensation. Her eyes animated well as she ate.

That moment, Tatara thought she seemed quite the jackpot. An odd girl who looked like she wasn't a compulsive liar, looked like a model in lights, and didn't have parents who divorced and a crazy ex who stalked her.

- / -

**December 6, 3:00 pm**

_Watanabe-san smiled._

"_That girl? Oh, you mean, Kanako and Fugaku's daughter?" She shook her head. The old woman had been close to the couple. "No, I haven't seen her, too, you know. It's such a pity. She could have had such a bright future. Studying in the city – dear me!"_

_Kuroh did not blink. _

"_Yes. She said she had to go, and she has never returned since then." He blushed, trying his best not to remember the parting kiss. _

"_Well, she always was a stubborn one. Poor girl got too used to her brothers. The same stubbornness is in her blood. Her parents were very devoted to Ichigen-sama, and it passed on to only her, out of her other siblings. When she was younger, I remember, she said she hated you because Ichigen-sama gave the lion's share of the sushi to you." Watanabe-san laughed heartily._

And I think she still does.

_He had grown up with views of her growing up, too, from time-to-time. As a child, she was the ugly duckling and liked to eat and fight a lot. She had petty quarrels, and as a teenager, she had grown out that mane. But most of such memories were hazy. It had been a long time. _

"_Well, if you want to clear up things, go do your duty and find her. It will help. Why do you think she left?"_

"_Mayhap because of me." _

_From what he had heard, there were whispers it was because of her own opinion of him. Kuroh ground his teeth. She still had a poor opinion of him, no doubt. He had to convince her otherwise._

"_Try to talk to her. She's a pretty girl; it won't hurt."_

"_I definitely will."_

The conversation with Watanabe-san did a good job of occupying Kuroh's mind. His text messages were ignored. Deleted, no doubt. He had tried so hard to track her down. It was a double risk, to find two beings so much wanted. If the other people loyal to Ichigen-sama had traits, it would be that they compared him and that girl, growing up together and apart.

And what ached him were his dreams. He dreamed of a girl dancing, her hair long and wavy and dark dancing with him, sensual and dangerous, clad in expensive outfits. She crawled and pounced with the speed and cunning of a wolf, and the sleekness of a panther. She waved her hands as if to strike. But what really got to him was its haunting conclusion: he and she would enter a room. She'd pull out a lighter, light it up and drop it to the floor, spreading flames across the room.

She was dangerous, but elegant, a lady.

He shook his head. He had other things to do than worry about girls setting rooms on fire in his dreams.

- / -

**December 6, 3:10 pm, HOMRA bar**

"What's her name again?" Yata asked impatiently, as he took a bite of the red velvet cupcakes, watching the others eat the cupcakes happily.

"Sai," Ishida replied, mouth full, "Ishida Saika. Call me Sai."

Izumo shook his head and clicked his tongue, and Anna was still. Mikoto watched warily, holding the cupcake in his large hands with caution. Tatara had introduced her and explained the situation, and added that it was only for a time being, and she had to be under HOMRA's protection. He eyed her warily, trying to see through her words, and that lovely baking, the result being the tasty red velvet cupcakes.

"She's not a girl," Yata whined, watching Ishida wash dishes. "She's a monkey."

A vein throbbed in Ishida's face.

"What did you say?!"

Before anyone could say anything, Ishida had ignored the dishes, leaving the water from the faucet dripping. Her hands wet, she was a loose canon. Her fire was lit, and the fuse was burning; she tackled Yata on the ground. First came a cautious straight punch that seemed to be dangerous and rehearsed. More punches came, and her eyes blazed over as the fire of hell boiled over and over.

"I told you!" yelled Yata, trying to squirm. "SHE'S NOT A GIRL, SHE'S A MONKEY!"

The next second, there was a large echo of a bump across the wall. Yata was on the wall, Ishida pinning him angrily. Her fingers squeezed his neck, a vise.

"Well?" she growled. "What am I now? A monkey?"

Yata growled.

"Fuck you!" In his hand, he grasped his baseball bat.

"Fuck me? Fuck you!"

And they charged, he with his Aura-enhcanced baseball bat, and she with her skillful dexterity in delivering blows.

Before any harm could be further be inflicted on, a release of red Aura swooned, a storm of crimson flooding the room.

The silence was enough to hear the overflow of the water from the neglected faucet.

"Enough." Mikoto ordered.

The two youngsters looked at him.

"What is it, Mikoto-san?" both asked at once, then glared at each other.

Izumo sighed in almost-annoyance. "You two are almost two peas in a pod."

"You two, please cut it." The leader held up a hand then he took a swig from his hanging cigarette, blowing air into the room. No one else spoke.

"Yes," Yata murmured, looking away in shame. Instead of bowing so easily to his rule, Tatara could see Ishida was trying to adjust but failed epically. Her eyes were raised in defiance, and she sighed.

"Very well, sir."

Mikoto nodded, acknowledging their presence. His eyes studied Ishida dangerously, as if she were a bear, not a girl. As if he were trying to read and see through such Aura. He stood up, and left the room.

Izumo followed him.

After a few minutes' silence, Izumo poked in his head through the door. His eyes were heavy with orders.

"Mikoto-san wants to see you, too."

His words were directed at Tatara.

- / -

**December 6, 3:30 pm, HOMRA bar**

"I want to talk to you about her, you must understand." The Red King spoke slowly. A puff of smoke blew from his mouth.

"What is it about her? She's perfectly harmless, Mikoto-san. Her ex is after her and her parents just got divorced. She's all alone in here."

Izumo cocked his head.

"She's very pretty, if you ask me." He tapped the edge of his glasses. "Pretty but dirty. She needs a bath, too and she reeks but she bakes very nicely. It's a pity she has short hair and wears so dirty clothes."

Mikoto leaned back against his chair. The cigarette dangled from his fingers loosely. He was a King in that chair, a lord who commanded his kingdom and subjects closely. A man with a large heart that he had to distribute wisely enough.

"What I think is that"-he took a swig of cigarette-"not everything she's told you, Tatara is all true. She isn't harmless – look at the way she tackled Yata." He rose from his seat with great dignity. "Such moves can be done by someone trained. Haven't you noticed that?"

Tatara and Izumo exchanged glances.

"Yes, but what about the part about her being chased by some manic ex-boyfriend?"

"She is being chased, but I believe not by her boyfriend. It has to be someone else," Izumo added.

"Then what do we do?"

Mikoto took another smoke on his cigarette. He blew smoke from his nose and mouth.

"I think we ought to keep her for now; she might be useful, and she seems tired." Mikoto looked at Izumo with certainty.

"You can fix her if you please. She's running from someone."

- / -

**December 6, 4:50 pm, HOMRA bar**

"What the fuck is this?" Ishida complained, as she held a long pair of wavy and long hair extensions curiously the exact color of her deep blue green hair. Around her, there were minidresses across her. Two pairs of designer shoes were strewn across the floor, and her bed was undone already. She was all clean now, her wet hair sticking to her forehead, her skin two shades lighter and her eyes clear. She wore what must have been one of Yata's old shirts; it was ratty and white, and had the words "RIGHT NOW, I DON'T GIVE A F*CK" on it, a pair of men's skinny jeans that was a size larger than hers and sandals.

Izumo and Anna and Tatara had decided to clean her up. Izumo had sent the expensive stuff to her, in hopes of improving her beauty and also, indirectly, changing her appearance so that her stalker wouldn't recognize her that easily.

"Be glad you have clothes; I had to buy them last-minute and all that was left were men's clothes. We can't have you running in those"-Izumo's nose twitched-"rags all the time."

Ishida scowled and dropped the hair extensions with irritation. "They're my clothes! My mother bought them from Korea!"

Yata snorted.

"They were rags, Sai."

"THEY'RE NOT RAGS, DAMMIT!"

"Just stop it," Izumo told her. "Put on the hair extensions and the silver dress and the silver pumps. I just want to see if it fits you."

Almost obediently, Ishida stood up, carried the pumps and hair extensions and the dress in her arms and went to the restroom built inside her room.

A minute later, she emerged, pouting.

For that moment, she seemed to really look good, almost handsome. Her eyes sparkled, and the dress showed off her curves in the right places. It had a square-shaped low neckline an inch above her chest, showing a hint of some cleavage, and its end reached several inches above the knees. The sleeves were so short, covering her shoulders, and showed off her long white arms, and her slender legs. Her hair was a dangerous beauty of its own, wavy and floating about her, a deep blue green halo. Sexy.

Izumo smirked, and even Yata's jaw dropped. Shouhei and the others nodded their approval. Tatara smiled to himself.

"She's beautiful," Anna said softly.

"Nah, she needs liptstick," Izumo chuckled.

_Click._

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU STARING AT?" Ishida howled. "I look like a fucking hoe!" Her fists balled in anger.

"You," Izumo put in brusquely. "You, my dear, look very beautiful. That, I think, will be enough to turn off your pursuer. You don't look like yourself, in fact."

But what really Sai thought was that her new look wouldn't really turn off her pursuer; it'd turn him on.

- / -

The hours sped by quickly, but the dreams haunted Kuroh. Slowly, her vision came out more clearly, though such sights were ambiguous. A flick of white legs. A flash of purple eyes.

Even dreams in their own rights were troublemakers, in his own belief.

**Notes:** I've changed her name. -_- I really enjoyed writing Saika's interactions with Tatara, it was fun. Thank you for the reviews and encouragements, I really am so grateful. 3 I hope you adore Saika, and think her very well-balanced, with her bad temper, gluttonous ways and her small redeeming qualities.


	3. Crayon

**Chapter 3: Crayon**

* * *

**December 6, 12:00 midnight, HOMRA bar**

"What are you doing up there?"

Sai cocked her head to see Tatara climb up behind her. Even in the darkness, she could see him clearly; her training had taught her to be alert, even in the darkness. She sat in the rooftop of the HOMRA bar, reckless as it seemed. She missed the night sky of her youth, as a child, climbing up the rooftops, navigating the roofs as she ran to kiss the taste of the night and the freedom it bought in the darkness.

The skies were a blanket of black. The stars were black holes, instead. They were visible to the naked eye due to the blackness of the sky. It had been so different back then; the stars were not invisible. They were a bunch of small gas lanterns that burned brighter than fireworks. Underneath the sea of black sky, below raged the buzzing of the city nightlife. Cars blazed their loud lights, calling "Welcome to my world!" and showed off their fastness, asking everyone why they were so serious.

"I'm thinking." Sai rubbed her eyes, her lips a tight line. She shivered in the cold darkness. Around her, her navy jacket with some metal spikes sewn on the hood was wrapped around her. Underneath, she wore Yata's I Don't Give a F*ck shirt, never mind she smelled of him. It distressed her to even imagine it. She always clashed with Yata, but she had to admit, he reminded her of herself as a child. Ill-tempered, lacking in attention. They, at the level, could be best friends or worse enemies, the way she saw it.

"You're not tired yet, aren't you?" Curiously, Tatara eyed the heavy headphones perched on top of the mountains of her shoulders, covering her ears. He quickly sat beside her, holding his camera with interest.

"I'm not sleepy. I couldn't." Sai wasn't lying. Her tongue twisted beneath her mouth. She found it a bit hard to lie to him now, especially now that Mikoto-san had summoned Totsuka-san and Kusanagi-san to talk to them in private. Interesting, but there was a feeling in her that she was the subject of all this talk. The times before she had arrived in the HOMRA HQ to eat, she had stolen some food. She had brawled for breakfast and dinner and midnight snacks, and had knocked out some rascals – enough to accost a racket.

She remembered the blue-haired bespectacled leader of the Blue Clan. Accompanied by a monkey with twisted hair and spectacles, a busted woman, with their drawn scabbards and the woman had yelled at her, for destroying the first floor of a building just because of starvation, demanding to know what kind of shit she was pulling off. Had it been her old teachers and it was in the mountains, she would have laughed until they joined.

The racket had destroyed clocks, walls, and glass surfaces. And the rascals she had fought had ran away, the fools they were and always would be, scared off of a hungry and conniving girl with a hot temper that matched the color of the clan who was taking her under their wing.

Some of the blue officers had smelled her: nicotine, grime, dirt, ramen and oil and the mountains, as well as the dried blood and steel. A few young men's faces creased. Yet they were polite enough not to complain.

"Are you a Strain?" she could still hear the busted blondie hurl at her.

Had she been younger, this incident could have been a simple daydream or foretelling. A child's imagination made from the stubbly hands and long fingers. Lowly and solid crayons, packs of colors and limitless imagination that lit up the dull paper.

_Get your cray on._

Crazy.

Everything would go crazy.

"Are you insomniac?"

Tatara's voice was heavy with concern.

Looking back at everything he had done for her made her gulp inwardly. He had done so much for her. He had listened. He had believed. He had welcomed her. He had taken her to her first Green Vesper. He had taken her photographs. He had shown her his cooking. He had convinced that Mikoto to let her in so she could have a place and a warm bed to sleep on, even if he himself was suspicious and Yata disliked her temper. He had appreciated her baking. He had fed her and paid for all the dilapidated meals she ate.

"I…I'm not."

She stifled the emotion in her voice.

Totsuka-san, you've done enough for me, she thought sadly. He was like her: a blind follower. A vassal. And yet he was unlike her: very friendly. Very nice. Laid-back. Good at cooking, well-rounded in skill. Not violent. Approachable. Sincere. Not her: a liar, a thief, a glutton, an ill-tempered fighter, violent and rampant. Judgmental.

"Maybe you're homesick. It'll wear off. HOMRA will be your second family here."

"But… can I trust them?"

"Yes. You will, eventually."

"Even that monkey?"

"Yes, even Yata."

"How can you say so?"

For not the first time, Sai doubted this truth very much. She had always valued her knowledge on profiling people. She saw them with harshness, and had done many cruel reviews on people. The harshest critic she had been with was Kuroh. In contrast to the young man, Sai critiqued HOMRA with equal cruelty, yet as a result, the judgments she internally passed on to them were higher than the ones she took for Kuroh.

"I have to be careful to trust," Sai whispered to herself. "I want to trust someone dependable enough and firm enough."

_Not gullible and kind-hearted. Not too polite._ Not like Kuroh.

"I hope you found it."

"I don't think HOMRA trusts me. They have reasons why they ought to mistrust me."

Tatara nodded politely at her.

"They will. It will take some time. Trust me."

_I already do._

"How about you, Totsuka-san? Do you trust me?"

Tatara smiled at her.

"Of course, I do, Sai-san. You're my family now."

He trusted her. He believed her. He took her in. He held her hand and led her to the foodfest of the city. He was her first friend. Something stirred inside her chest. Her face heated up in the cold, and for the first time, Sai was starting to question her inner emotions of the things she felt for Totsuka-san. He acknowledged her, he gave her a home.

_Do I love him?_

When she looked back at him, she saw faint marks on his neck.

"What happened to you?"

Tatara shrugged her concern off, with his old self. "Some scuffle with a Strain. Don't worry, Sai-san, I'll survive this."

"No. Let me look at it."

She came closer. Close enough to smell his street smell, the smell of cinnamon and the streets. Close enough to touch the disheveled collar turned up in his outfit. Her fingers brushed over his collarbone, her eyes as steely as her touch suddenly was light. They came lightly over his shirt-covered collarbone. For a moment, Tatara was silent, a little surprised by the intimacy.

Was she going to kiss him? Her eyes were suddenly softer, and her face gentler to look at that became another person. Suddenly, it was a face that could love and profess loyalty to a lucky man – or a King. Why was she fishing with his collar? Even at twenty-two, Tatara was still virgin; he inwardly blushed to think he had a possibility of losing it to a girl five years his junior, a cute girl who loved to eat and had a temper as powerful as a volcano.

"Does it hurt?" Her index finger traced over his bare skin. There were a few cuts on her hands, he realized. Perhaps she was hiding new cuts under her clothes as well. She unbuttoned the first button of his shirt. A trickle of sweat passed over his face.

Tatara closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he looked down to see a bandage put on his wound.

"Well?" Ishida's face was devoid of any emotion except for her fiery outlook. "What did you think? That I was going to rape you?"

He looked away –

"Heck no!" She bit her lip, her face a light pink.

Damn.

They were both having the same dirty thoughts.

"Totsuka-san?"

"Yes?"

"Can you go out with me tomorrow in the city? I would like to talk with you." Ishida was all set, as if their almost semi-perverted encounter did not exist. "It's something important."

"I will. I don't mind."

She smiled sadly.

* * *

- / -

**December 7, 1:00 afternoon, HOMRA bar**

"So, when are you exactly going to talk to me?" Tatara's voice came echoing in the kitchen, footsteps echoing in the space.

To his surprise, he smelled pastries. Cupcakes, he could detect, and then something really weird faced him in the kitchen.

The table glimmered with pastries. Red velvet cupcakes, a bright healthy golden chiffon cake on the table, and croissants that could fit a Clan twice the size of the HOMRA. Just beside the table, the oven clicked and ticked with its speechless ticking tongue. Inside were banana bread. The color of the pastries was very lovely, blooming and pure Arbor gold.

Lo and behold – in the flesh, Ishida stood wiping her hands with a towel, her face stoic yet so calm. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a Korean imitation, some strands straying away from her clear face, a bandana wrapped around her head, and wearing a light navy apron over Yata's I DON'T GIVE A f*CK tunic and gold-washed skinny jeans three sizes too big for her.

"Did you bake this?"

Sai looked at him critically.

"Yes."

"You're pretty good."

She handed him a cupcake, black and white with sprinkles on it and even something written on it with red-and-orange filling.

"What's this?"

"It's a s'mores cupcake. Read it."

_Thank you, Totsuka-san._

Smilingly, he ate it.

"It's very good. I think you'd make a good wife, Sai-san."

Sai bit her tongue.

"Good wife? I'm not interested."

"But you had your ex, right?"

"Totsuka-san, I-"

"FOOD!"

HOMRA.

"I want to taste," came Anna's voice, although soft, was audible outside.

Sai raised a brow at Totsuka. "Later," she mouthed.

* * *

- / -

**December 7, 10:00 pm, Shizume City**

"So what do you want to talk about?"

"I…" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry. I did not intend to do this, understand. I did not realize what I was doing at all. I thought I was doing my job. Are you listening?"

"I'm all ears. Fire away."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not an orphan. My parents have been together for twenty years, and I've never had a boyfriend at all. I was born here in the heart of Shizume City, and lived my early childhood with Suzuhara Riku-san. He was a bartender. Then I moved with my siblings to the mountains, so we could be with our parents and their King. My parents are the blood of the blood of the Seventh Colorless King, Miwa Ichigen-sama. They served him with all their hearts, and they passed on to me this will."

She sighed.

"And I was going to be a vassal. Instead, Ichigen-sama died. He meant a lot to me, you know. Because of my devotion, I went here for one thing and only one thing: carry out his final wishes." She eyed him suspiciously. "I hope you will help me, though."

"I'm not hesitating, Ishida-san."

"That is, to murder the Colorless King."

"So you came here for it. I don't blame you. I am not judging you, either. You are only being a dutiful girl."

"And also, I came in contact by accident with SCEPTER 4 and their King." By the way she spoke, Tatara knew at once she didn't like Reisi Munakata. "That was the night I left you in the bar. I was outside hungry, and out of the blue, I suddenly started a large brawl. It was a fistfight, no – a fray that was so messy that SCEPTER 4 had to be summoned in order for it to be stopped."

"Then no wonder Mikoto-san was cautious about you."

"Yes. I fought, too – almost blew away my cover: a hungry compulsive liar with a bad temper. I'm telling you this because from this point, we have to part ways. I cannot spend my mission here feeling debted to HOMRA. I've written my goodbyes to HOMRA, and they've made my time here quite bearable. My last wish is that you must help me track down the Colorless King."

She shook his hand firmly, suddenly no longer the starving baker, but a fiery baker-vassal clothed in mission.

"I won't forget you, Totsuka-san. I'll accomplish my mission, and see you sometime." She began to walk.

"Wait."

"Well?"

He tossed her the photos of her he had taken.

"Keep these, then, Ishida-san."

"Why? But –"

"I already have my own copies. You're one of prettiest faces out there, Sai-san. You're not exactly a great beauty, but you have something. If you want to model, you really can."

Sai almost smirked.

"Well then, goodbye!"

Sai waved, then nodded.

She disappeared. As he watched her hair wave, he felt a surge of pity, concern and almost affection for her. Her hips swayed. He had become fond of her, he realized sadly. Her baking, her rare smiles, the way she hid emotions and put on a tough front.

Colorless King.

With a hammer to his heart, Tatara held his camera and walked on, knowing somehow it might be the last time he would see her.

* * *

- / -

**December 7, 11:45 pm**

A text message arrived in Sai's phone.

She had been haplessly walking around, then snuck in Ichiban, for some ramen, as usual.

_Why do I feel empty? Is it because I do love Totsuka-san? Why is it that I feel like I have left my weapon? Why do I feel dead? It's almost like losing Ichigen-sama all o-_

The phone hummed in her pocket.

_Catch a crayon –_

She picked it up and turned it on.

_The Colorless King_

A photo of a blurry guy with white hair grinned evilly at her.

_Killed me. I'm so sorry._

Inwardly, she felt like she lost a thousand lives. She had to avenge him. Automatically, her hands suddenly lost the ire of Totsuka. Her fingers clutched for the fury. The warm ramen house became cold and lifeless to her. Even if she was a little shaken, she kept composure. Around her, the living igloo blurred with a shine of eyes and a blur of memories. Totsuka and her, eating in this very seat. Totsuka and her eating. Totsuka and her bickering over photos. Her baking, appreciated by HOMRA. Yata's shirt, and the darned little hair extensions Izumo had made her wear. Nettles and icicles dug inside her heart, pricking it a thousand times over.

Words between them, the way he looked at her, her own murmurings and small ways. Perhaps she had loved him.

_Mine is the fury._

The Colorless King would be hers. Tatara was dead now. Kuroh, no doubt, was on the way to see her. Brand her as a traitor, flay her alive in humiliation. HOMRA would insist she be their ward, but she no longer had the appetite to seek them. It was bad enough she had manipulated them all. Even SCEPTER 4 seemed to have a clue of who she was. Her lies had a result, and she was pulling the strings by herself.

Ichigen-sama had warned her to be careful of her tongue. _Child, you will be great one day, but do hold your horses. They will drag countless men to their depths._ He did not beat her when she lied; that stare hurt her deep already.

It was hers. All her fault - Tatara's death. He had been fooled. How could he have cared for someone so interested in self-advancement, food and her desires only? He had been dear to her heart. But she had to get up, despite the pain. IF she had done this, killing him, then she had to make it hers truly. Death was the atonement she had to give. Pull strings with the King and then vengeance was hers. She had started it and she would finish it. No one would block her way.

_I run this show.  
_

* * *

**Note:** It's too short, but Sai is mine and I hope you enjoy it!


	4. That Xx

**Chapter 4: That Xx**

**Shizume City**

"_Haha." White hair and the blur of a bloody shirt, and the face raised. Crazed eyes, wide with the mixture of manic amusement at the pain of man leveled with the level of lust for the red drops of life that could sustain and kill. Wine of the vampires, king of the kings, and the lusty laugh lauded through the endless echo of black._

_Black, the color of night and despair, red the color of passion, desire and angry men._

A few days and later, Saika proves herself a quick opportunist, and very understanding enough to know covers are not enough through words.

So she locates a school convincing enough for her to sign up under a codename, and buys the uniform, informing the administration that she will arrive anytime soon. Her other stuff is nested on her bag, in a scroll, crammed in the bag that Tatara thinks is not enough for her to survive on her own. She doesn't want HOMRA to see her as a liar, seeing as she is the last person who has seen Tatara before his ultimate demise. Nor does she want them to see her as a murderer, a helpless mouse with nothing to fight with.

_The school is having a festival. Please arrive in your uniform; we'll have Yukizome-san hand you your PDA._

Those had been the words the admin had sent her for her to ensure her plans. School had been one of the last things on her mind. For the past year, she had given reasons why she had to ditch it as frequently: she wanted to train and serve and fight. Her mother had fought her for her education. Sai wanted none of it: none of the teachers who picked on her, none of the boys who lingered after her and staring at her and fingering her hair since it was so pretty, and tried hitting and flirting with her. And she wanted none of the bullies who tried to set her up with the class' biggest bully.

_Perhaps I should try the uniform on for today with my wig. It might make me blend in._ As quick as a knife, she changed in the comfort room of a nearby sushi house to and walked out, to her annoyance, feeling suffocated, invisible threads binding her movements and restricting them much to her pride.

She glanced at the glass of a K-pop music store and felt disgusted with what she saw. The girl in the window looked very feminine and frail. She was lanky with average-sized breasts and tall, her eyes doelike and violet, the curves of her heart-shaped face much softer from the long strands of deep blue green that fell in two tight ponytails hanging from the extensions placed on the back of her head. The long-sleeved navy blouse constricted her chest. But what was really infuriating was the skirt- the skirt, horror of all horrors!

Her waist and hips itched to move, yet they were restricted by the violetA-line skirt that was tied at her thighs, slits revealing white underskirt beneath. Plus, it was really short, and really…revealing. If the wind raised her skirt and Yata would see it, for itself, Sai would relent heartlessly to murdering him.

Her cheeks heated.

EFFFFF. She looked like a come-hither schoolgirl baring her legs for everyone to see. And the high-heeled boots hurt her feet and she was a little clumsy with them. OH GOD, SHE WOULD BE THE TOAST OF BULLIES AGAIN – Her ears rang and gooseflesh burst in her arms. She felt like she was being watched.

_HOMRA? Kuroh-teme, perhaps? The Colorless King? Totsuka-san's ghost –_ Her first reaction took place – balling her fists-

_Bump_. Friction.

Her bag dropped, and Sai looked to see who it was.

Just in time, the stranger paused. A tall man with dark long hair floating, black coat, and normal shoes. A katana shone near his side. The stranger cocked his head and looked at her with eyes the color of steel.

Her heart skipped a beat. On her retraction, Sai tried to hide the blush and succeeded, trying not to feel awkward. Men did not do this. They stole bags and money, she thought bitterly.

The man bent down and picked up her bag, then started to move in her direction, focused on her. When they were a few inches apart, his lips curved in the foreshadowing of a smile that seemed peaceful. He leveled the bag and raised it to her face.

"Is this yours? I'm very sorry, I was in a hurry, ma'am." His breath smelled familiar. The smell of the divine wind, the Kamikaze and the smell of the mountains, a hint of cinnabar and cinnamon, and sakura petals.

What would a normal girl say? UGH. For starters, Saika Ishida did not and could not talk to men properly! Men who she was not familiar with, men who were far away from the world of combat, Auras and Kings, men familiar to her. She did not have guts to ask boys out, though had guts to threaten them in their faces.

She snatched the bag away from him.

"Thank you."

Nodding politely at her, the stranger wheeled away.

After he had gone, Sai realized why she suddenly felt nervous and queasy: the man had resembled Kuroh to a great extent.

_Nice legs._

Sai glared at the text from Izumo. How the hell did he even get her number? Call me maybe? She tried to remember the times she had slept in the HOMRA bar. Mikoto had tucked her in, and checked on her, as Izumo had filled her in. They were supposed to be watching her, she thought as bitterly as one did. Not hijack her phone.

_Contacts:_

_Akagi, Shohei_

_HOMRA_

_Ichigen-sama_

_Kusanagi, Izumo_

_Kim Ji Eun_

_Mama_

_Otou-san_

_Sakamoto Aya_

_Suoh, Mikoto_

_Sutr, Eric_

_Totsuka, Tatara_

_Yatogami, Kuroh_

OH GOD NO.

Some HOMRA had filled her phone contacts. Someone had deleted most of her other contacts; some friends and family.

_Ignoring me?_ The text from Izumo appeared on her screen.

Sai kept a straight face.

_The King's been searching for you! He thinks you're the last one Totsuka-san talked to._

Sai's fingers blurred the screen.

_Please leave me alone. I'm a schoolgirl now. I promised Totsuka-san that I would part my ways with HOMRA to study._

_And I thought you were going to study Baking? _

_Just shut up. I have nothing left. Go away. _

_There are many rapists out there. Stay with HOMRA._

_I'm getting my own place soon, but thanks, anyway._

HOMRA.

Watching. Tracking. Running after. Chasing after. Outwitting. Trying. Reaching. Her. Things HOMRA was doing. They were all after two persons: her and the Colorless King. Celebrities?

Sai ran across the endless void of cars, streets in the adrenaline blue of the blue city, hoping no one would find her.

- / -

"So she left?"

Yata was not disappointed at the action of the new girl: leave HOMRA. Izumo turned his phone off and looked at Yata with cryptic eyes. He could tell Yata was not disappointed.

"Of course she ought to. She was too temperamental for us –"

"No. She's made her decision, and she's on the run again, from someone, not us. Totsuka-san DID mention she and he made a promise to each other. He said that he found the thing Ishida-san was looking for and that everything was in her hands now."

"If she actually makes it. I don't think she can make it."

"You've never seen her fight. Totsuka-san told me that she's not a bad fighter." The cigarette swirls around. "Good reflexes, some baking skills though not the best yet. A quick temper, a sense of gluttony anywhere you go. Her temper matches our King's color and hair. Even our Aura, too. She's no spy, Yata-san. Just a troubled girl who can be meek and understanding enough to push people away for her own needs."

Yata fell silent.

"She is fierce. How is she not, Kusanagi-san? She's been hogging food ever since she came here. She's caused some riot with SCEPTER 4 all because of hunger. She's said that her parents are divorced and yet told _**our**_ Totsuka-san the truth about her."

Izumo blew a smoke ring.

"I kissed her ass to get on her good side. Good-looking enough to make a living, yes, but not good-looking enough for my taste. I've seen more beautiful women, a tad plain compared to that Tundra woman. Too young for me and Totsuka-san, even if the way he talked about her was enough. She didn't care about her looks, it seems. She acts repulsed by it."

"You and your women, Kusanagi-san!" Yata did not hide his incredulous disgust. Izumo was a womanizer who kissed women's asses using compliments as his lips. He had had numerous relationships. As an experienced philanderer, the first thing he would notice about a woman was her beauty. The Theon of the HOMRA, certified playboy.

"Would you still track her?"

"Why shouldn't I? We were told to watch over her occasionally."

"That doesn't mean a fucking excuse to stalk her. It's good she left but bad enough you're sending her texts all the time."

"Say what you like. I'm only doing my job."

Yata tapped his headphones in frustration.

Girls. Girls. Creatures he did not how to talk to. Yet he had seen one of them invade HOMRA as fast as smoke rises when there is a lit fire. A girl of unwomanly manners, of ill tempers, a child-woman of unsurpassing countenance who won people over with her food and her decisions to leave. Fickle girls who cried over their biases and committed suicide. Fickle girls who fussed over mirrors. No, she was not like that. She had been angry and ready to kill him, poised to attack, killing him with her anger, with her words.

She was the ugliest wench he had ever seen. Short hair and doelike violet eyes. She called herself after a weapon, a Sai. She only became peaceful when she baked, and became demanding if she was hungry.

The last girl he had known before her was Izumi. Long black hair, she was full of golden rings and bells. She was pure golden rays, ready to blind and sometimes, too overwhelming. She had been a girl he knew at school, back to the time he and Fushimi had been close. He never talked to her properly, because he was too shy.

Talkative when it came to her friends, clingy, said to be "cute" by others. He knew she was reserved but talkative – he had seen her enough with her other friends at school. She said hi to him, to which he found himself staring at her like an idiot. She had been someone almost as interesting as Mikoto Suoh enough to make his day, but he was a boy, and she was a girl who seemed too out of his league.

Annoying to others, plain pissy to some.

Misaki knew better than to think about her.

- / -

"What's that? Look!"

Kuroh Yatogami knew more than to look. Kuroh Yatogami was a man, bound to his lord and orders. He was bound to serve and obey – as well as carry out. He was never one to protest and quoth. He was vassal, taken to be one and born to rule and carry out orders. No one told him what to do. No one told him to look.

The vassal's face animated less, a stony face.

"I-I'm not kidding!" the white-haired kid cried. His eyes were wide and hazel, incredulous. "LOOK!"

The warning did not lessen the hardness of the raven assassin's grip on his collar. Instead, it became pure gold plate, crusted and fastened on to him with utter desolation. The intensity of the man's determination was fearsome and utterly amazing. Nothing could take this man down. He was a force to fight with. He refused to falter, in pure ostensity.

"I will look," Kuroh allowed. "Once you are dead!"

"WAIT!" the kid screeched. "Really, look!"

Kuroh inwardly snorted and ignored the boy's jibes.

- / -

Sneaking in Ashinaka is easy as pie. If you pose as a student, and you're wearing a uniform, then nothing else is guaranteed but rather, welcome. Even for one as opportunistic as Saika Ishida can be, she had gone past the buildings, and snuck in the dorms, and she was quickly referred to a certain Isana Yashiro's dorm room, after much looking and acting polite when inwardly she was feeling like she was going to go crazy and burst, set the whole place on fire.

_I'm after a guy with white hair and I need a dorm_, she remembered herself saying as she waited inside, on top of the bed. The room was certainly messy and it did reek a bit. Why not fix a bit? She was also getting a bit hungry; if she would share this room with Isana, then she could make it work. If he didn't cook and sucked at it, then she'd bake and live on it. She ignored the video of Totsuka's death suddenly playing on her phone…

Cookies, cakes, cupcakes, muffins, bread, montblancs… Ahh. Sai thought about all those food as she scribbled on her spidery calligraphy in a Post-It.

_Hello, Isana-san,_

_ If you don't mind, I will be sharing your room for a while. I'm a new student here, your age, seventeen and two months old. I've dropped my things here. Either way, Isana-san, I can't wait until we get to know each other._

_ -Sasayama Saika_

_Creak._ Sai peered inside his closet. To her relief, the clothes were folded neatly and piled on top of each other. A little messy, but somehow neat and cozy. If he lived on junk food, then she would help a lot. A little cooking and baking and she could make him a human guy. As long as she'd be searching for the Colorless King, then the better she learned to interact with regular people again.

Despite the bullies and her infamy and all her horrible experiences, Sai had to admit she did miss some things about it. Some caramaderie, few friends, the teachers… Even the occasional Mr. Perfect once in a while, even if she disliked the thought that one day someone would come for her and make her his.

Red.

For a moment, she stared open-mouthed at the red thing, folded neatly in white and red.

Goose pimples broke out through her skin. She let her bag drop, along with the metal scarf. Her phone clung to her hands, a piece of technology with a yin and yang keychain attached to it.

No. No. The King she was going to murder. The man she was stalking. The reason she had to leave, the bane of her whole existence.

Just then, the door burst open, and to her surprise, the white-haired boy walked in, looking really tired.

Sai quickly jumped. She launched herself across the cozy dorm room, from his room, to the window, and outside, hanging on to the wall for dear life.

Voices.  
"…Hassle."

"I know. Especially when life was so good up until now."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"I am Neko!"

OH GOD.

For a few minutes, Sai was frozen there, pinned to the outdoors. More noises came after. Another female voice, besides Neko's and Isana's. Then a deep male one. Th cadence of their voices only made Sai inwardly cringe.

_Seriously? If Kuroh was here, then he'd kill me. These people are making my job really unbearable._ Her eyebrow twitched in impatience. She wanted to go back inside and get her scroll out and threaten but for some reason, she knew her master would not have approved of said action.

It went silent.

Sai quickly slipped in. To her relief, no one had taken notice of her phone lying there as well as her scarf and bag. The light from the window poured in, with the layers of acrid dust, washed in a soupy golden light. She took the bag and fished the scroll in, cautious. The gaudy yellow Post-It was no longer there, taken by either the man with the deep voice or the white-haired one, her roommate Shiro.

One way or another, Sai took a walk for fresh air.

Away from Shiro for a while; her baking would make him a nice meal –and away from the man who resembled Kuroh so much her heart ached.

- / -

_**He**_ just had to fall on top of her.

_**He**_ was running, and she was walking. A raven on his way to fight and overtake his prey, the other a trouble maker. Was it his fault that she was even there? Was it his right to ravage her? Was it his fault and will that she just happened to be a cute high school girl who had a nice walk and enticing long legs bound to attract perverts of all sorts?

Kuroh blinked.

He quickly stood up, and extended a hand to the fallen girl. Something about her caught his eye. Quickly, he gave her a searing once-over.

She was a fine-looking specimen, lanky like a horse, but skinny. Her face was a little hard to read, her eyes a shiny violet. Her hair was parted on its right side and she had deep blue green hair that fell to her waist in loose waves. It was a look that did wonders for her prettily; it emphasized the curves in her face. If Kuroh had been a student, he surely might have serenaded or gone out with her somehow, in another world. She was not of the beauty that kings gave their kingdoms for, but attractive enough, on a smaller scale. The masculine stiffness and steely glint she held herself with was a dead giveaway.

He knew that face. That voice. He almost did not recognize her in her hair – long and wavy and even. It had been a long time when she had hair as lengthy as it was now. Last time he had seen her, she had had hair cut unevenly and short.

She looked more like her mother now, all feminine and enticing although it had always struck Kuroh that she always had a stronger resemblance to her father. Her face was angled and solemn like her father, all so steadfast and dutiful. A Fugaku Ishida face, yet now, it had become more soft. For the first time, he realized she also had some of her mother's pretty features.

His fondness for her parents did not stop his conviction in catching her.

"Well? Are you not going to help me up?" As she was going to stand up defiantly on her own, Kuroh made his decision. He took her wrist tightly.

"WHAT?!"

"I am sorry about this, but you need to explain yourself to me," Kuroh stated. His throat felt tight. "I will not let you out of my sight from this moment on."

A few girl students giggled, passing by.

"Excuse me?"

Her hand was ready to slap him, but he quickly dodged it.

"So you will kill me, right?"

Kuroh shook his head at her.

- / -

With voices as soft as thunder, Sai baked. She deep-fried eggs, and made pastries that smelled good, of sugar and cream and milk. Kuroh. Kuroh had made her do this: bake for someone she barely knew. And a whole workload, too. Damn him. Damn him to the pits of Hades where he belonged with Cerberus, his boyfriend.

"So Sai-san bakes?" Isana's voice was almost dreamy. Neko made a protesting sound in annoyance. Jealousy, even. The smell of cream puffs, glazed doughnuts and chicken pie spread through the dorm.

"She does. You're very lucky she is baking for you."

"I'M HUNGRY! FASTER!" Neko nagged.

Sai rolled her eyes. She cocked her head to look at Kuroh, who was hovering near her in the small kitchen.

He stared at her curiously, obviously distracted by her long hair, which she had pinned up.

"DONE!"

Sai threw the horrible pink apron off her and set the plates down.

"YESSS!" Neko squealed, her pink hair flying up and down. As she took her seat beside Neko, Sai did not make an effort to talk.

He made her suffer this. He forced her to do this. And he had sworn that she was to be his prisoner, guarded and prodded and poked until he was pleased. He would force himself on her until he was happy. He would make her suffer.

The thought of him sitting at her table only made her lose her appetite.

"What do you want to eat, Sai-san?" Kuroh asked her formally, getting her plate for her.

"I don't want to eat." Sai stood up from the table. "I really have no appetite," she quipped. _With you around. You disgust me, Yatogami._ _You have no idea how much._

_Jerk._

_Ass._

_Son of a bitch._

_Motherfucking idiot._

_Knave._

_Punk._

_Oxymoron._

Sai could name a thousand curses to describe the man. She wanted her fingers on his skin, clenching tightly over his wind pipe. Oh, yes. The thought tempted her too well. She wanted his head smashed over a wall. She wanted portions of his skin sent to her, to placate her. Anything would please her now, but not now, too – she respected Ichigen-sama to do such a thing to his precious little vassal.

"Are you sure you don't want to eat?"

"Very much."

She stalked off the room, and sat on the window ledge. Never mind the heights. Never mind that she wouldn't eat. Never mind that she still couldn't get over her strong dislike. She truly hated him. She had only loved him because of her love for his master, the great King.

_Click._ A fire lit, ablaze, and Sai pulled out a cigarette.

Dangling the lit cigarette between her hands, she knew she looked either tragic or really ridiculous and absurd. Her parents had told her to never smoke. But in this case, Sai was determined to smoke. She needed one; she had seen Izumo and Mikoto do it. Mikoto had done it so well he looked like he was lighting the Olympic Flame. Besides, her moodiness would not be so seen through if she would smoke. She needed a major break now.

She sucked on the nicotine cancer stick, glad for the smell of cigarettes and nicotine. Frustrated.

That idiot.

She sucked on more –

Someone had grabbed the cigarette from her. Alarmed, Sai glared at Kuroh.

"What the hell was that for, sir?"

"You are not going to do this. It is terribly irresponsible of you to do such a thing. Your father would be disappointed."

"No," Sai corrected, quick to take a chance. "He would understand. Unlike you. Now get me that cigarette or I swear I will hit you now."

Her ears rang, and she could feel her patience stretch to the thinness of a piece of tissue paper soaked in water.

"No. No."

"Is that the only word you know?!" Sai hissed at him, her voice cracking like a whip. She hastily pulled out her tonfas.

"No." Kuroh calmly patted Kotowari.

"So I am right."

With that, she lunged, her head spinning with hate.

**Notes:** Since a certain someone wants to see what the metal scarf look likes, it's exactly like the one Minzy (the one with short hair) was wearing in the 2NE1 MV Can't Nobody, where she's wearing a blue hoodie.


	5. Red and Black

**Chapter 5:** Red and Black

* * *

"Take off your shirt, Sai-san."

The order from his lips came at once. With Kotowari and her tonfas clashing while Neko and Shiro slept, it was hard not to see why she was such a good student who forced to learn. She was volatile, and fast for a girl. Numerous swipes of the steel and blade later, and she had landed a few hits on him and him one majorly erroneous aim. Her shirt in its front had ripped and she had gotten a nasty injury. The metal's smell was vague, soft, creeping like smoke. The scarlet tear gashed softy, killing her pale skin.

"It's just an injury. I'm still standing."

"You're bleeding. You always did push yourself too hard."

"Whatever." She closes her eyes. She chooses to ignore him, and shrouds herself in invisible black mist. She will not let him take her shirt off. She will not let him touch her. He is nothing to her but a cat who will catch her and devour her with his sharp teeth. A soldier sent to brand her as a dead woman. He is a cat, she is a mouse, bound to him as a trophy of war, of the tension her little game has caused them.

It is far from over.

"My game is not yet over," Sai replied stiffly. She edged away to the window, the smell of blood wreaking the room. "You will not touch me nor do anything you like to me. I order it, sir."

He set Kotowari down. In the moonlight, the gold hilt of his katana glimmered, stars and precious medallions.

"Yes, you will."

His voice was softer.

"Are you going to kill me now?"

He approached her. His smell overtook hers – by matters of what was sweet and salty, metallic. But his smell was more pleasant. The wind poured in the open window, lifting gooseflesh onto Sai's hair on the back of her neck, exposed by her short hair. Then she saw his fingers move. And he came close to her.

_Step._

_Step._

She took a deep breath, and forced herself to lean away, but the only reply she got was the thud of the wall nearest the window. _Is he going to kiss me?_

Her hands palmed the ground.

It felt very hot all of a sudden, heat from his and hers, but her gooseflesh broke out in countless bruises.

"Don't –"

He put a finger to her lips. Then it began.

He took her jacket off, and after folding it neatly, set it next to her. Then he unbuttoned her button-down shirt.

Underneath, she shivered. Her eyes fixated on him coldly. _Die. Die. Die. _Despite how cruel or evil he was, the way he handled her was gentle, the touch of a free wind on her skin. He handled her like a knight handled his Lady, the one he swore his heart to.

When the shirt was off, she was suddenly in her thin tank top. One of the straps was ruined by the wound, and it smelt rotten. The wound was pure fire, scarlet and vivid, all-consuming and vengeful. Its smile was a cantankerous fire in the darkness, for it is dead. And what is dead may never die.

He worked slowly, and did not falter. A small blush here and there, but he took it professionally, soft. He put down the strap and cleaned the wound with alcohol and cotton balls, then bandaged it. Before she could rush to cover her bare skin, he slid his jacket off him and put it around her. The man stood up at her, his gaze soft and thoughtful, a river of gentleness.

_Kill me now?_

"Sleep with it for now, for it is cold. Your clothes smell. Tomorrow, I'd like to see you bathed and clean and your hair combed."

"Why are you doing this? I'm not your friend. I'm not your ally. I'm not some chick you just saved and can leave here. I can fight. I can kill you. I am your enemy, not your trophy."

He raised a brow.

"Because I don't want you looking like that. You have better things to do, Sai-san. You served my master. He wouldn't want to see you like that. We're from the same Clan. Therefore, we should work together, not gang up against each other. Your father, my father did so."

The loyal Ned to his Robert. The boy who loved his friend, the king, the boy who vowed honor for his service. It had been Ichigen and Fugaku. Fugaku had loved Ichigen so much.

"My father loved yours. It doesn't mean I should love you too."

Oops.

"Your father was loyal to mine and served him without any doubt. You are your father's daughter, I am my father's son. Their legacies are for us to be one."

Excuse her?

"Sorry, I am not considering this offer, it is absolutely atro-"

Kuroh scowled.

"We are under the same banner. We are one under it. Your father and mine were good friends, loved each other like brothers. I have to do the same, too." For once, he was suddenly a soft-hearted boy, the boy she knew and grew apart with and from.

"Do the same? No one does that anymore, boy," Sai almost cackled, sounding bitter to her appreciation. "This is not the age of chivalry. I detest you, and will not be with you. I stand only for my interest. My interest is the King and the Clan. You are not involved. Nor will you interfere."

"I am only doing my duty. The same duty as yours."

"Your duty ought to have been mine! You always had a soft heart, even till now. You cannot abide such gentle ways! It is weakness, foolish boy."

Kuroh stared at her, mouth twitching.

"You are younger than me… Yet you speak like an old man who has seen the world. What thing can make such a soul full of hate for it, made it so dark that thorns decorate the surface of your spirit?"

Sai scowled.

"I am only looking at things the way a true vassal does. Traitor or not, I am only doing it for my own honor. Unlike you, I wish to accomplish my duty."

"Kami-sama take your honor." His voice was harsh, almost angry. It was _Heart of Darkness_ all over again.

"Honor?" Sai snatched his jacket off her. The night air chilled her bones. "What do you know of honor, then? What do you think you are? A knight? No!"

"Your wound –"

"I am not talking about my wound." Her head was fire, spinning. As she spoke, she realized her words were coming out tenser. They shook. "We are talking about honor! Define honor, then, you little stray!" Her fingers danced with the temptation of light and fire, the dancing flickers of orange, crimson and gold an inspiration. "Do you call what you do right now honor, even?"

Her fingers itched. They always do, you know, when they want to kill. Edgar Allan Poe writes of people like her: patient enough yet can kill you as quickly as the shadow of the shadow rises as soon as the sun hits you. Anger.

"Bandaging you? I call it honor."

"So that is how you see everything. You are young, you are naïve. You may think you are my knight, ready to protect me and take me as a spoil of war, but no. The Clans no longer work that way. In this game, you win or you die. It's the way the Clans operate. Hackers, fighters, Kings. A living game of chess. You are either a pawn or a knight. This is not honor, playing into this hell of a system."

"Your King who you are so loyal to died under the same system."

"I obey and I send out my own will! I take them out of the respect and loyalty I carry for him! I loved him more than you did, although he favored you more!" When she saw his shocked face, there everything shattered. Her throat felt rough and heavy and tight. She choked on dust, on the bitter gourd of her words. She had been yelling, and her fingers had clenched into a fist.

"Then… Go on." His eyes were hard. "If you call what I do dishonor, what else do you call what you have done?"

"I call mine free will and duty. I do not call them truth."

"Where is truth, then? Dead?"

He was playing along with her. He's a pawn.

"What is dead may never die but rises up stronger and faster than ever," Sai coldly responded. "It will only come back. Karma demands it."

"I've seen what you can do, but little. You wrap yourself in lies and you talk to me of the truth in the world."

"Yes, true."

"Which is why some people dislike you here. I believe SCEPTER 4 wants your head. I take it at least one of HOMRA finds you repulsive."

"Not everyone likes me. Deal with it."

"Well, I am curious." Kuroh put the jacket on top of her shoulders. "Why such a girl chose to become a cynic? Girls are not cynics. They hope and they pray. They fight to live and do what they can."

"That's an easy one."

"Then what is it?"

"It's because I am not like the other girls. Trust me – you know nothing at all."

"Well spoken for a cynic."

* * *

- / -

"_You seem to be a runaway, Saika-san." Izumo's voice is tinged with finality._

"_Runaway? No." She shakes her head._

"_What are you here for? Anyone can tell you are a respectable girl. A girl from a respectable sort of family, yet you spend your time chasing the streets, begging for food and under us." _

_Sai pulls out a pack of Camels, and sticks one into her mouth._

"_You smoke, too?" Izumo's eyes crinkle. "It doesn't look good on you, you know. Just like I've said: you're a respectable girl. It looks absurd on someone as young as you are."_

_Sai almost blushed. _

_He takes a cigarette out of the pack and lights his. He pops it on his mouth. Just like he's said: he looks more natural to be smoking. He is suave, all smooth words and action. _

"_Why are you here at all? You claim your boyfriend is after you. You say that your parents are divorced but I think you've been having a tough time, don't you?"_

"_It's a sensitive topic, Kusanagi-san." _

_Izumo takes another swipe of smoke. _

"_If you were a male, then I would definitely be reminded of Yata. But you're a girl."_

_Sai shoots him a glare, and he holds up both his hands._

"_The city is different in the dark. There are trains and buses, but it's late in the night. It's dangerous. I've had a few nasty brushes myself. While you're here in the city, it's best you have us, HOMRA to protect you."_

- / -

She sleeps, snuggling into the eternal darkness. Kuroh watches her and lays by her side, trying not to feel awkward. In his jacket, she snuggles nicely. Her face is serene, a girl's face. A face with a broad forehead covered by parted bangs. Her dark blue green hair tousles on the pillow. In her tank top and his jacket, it is more evident to see she is a female, and a fine specimen enough with budding curves that are seen if she wears fit clothes.

What did this girl go through? Why was she such a cynic?

She is a victim of darkness, nothing but a poor girl who deserved to do her duty. She is a girl, and he must protect her, despite all her fire and insults to his face. He doesn't want to fight her, but he admits inwardly she's a hawk: vicious and fast as a fighter, as quick as the mercury.

Brushing her hair through his fingers, he fishes through her personal belongings. Her hair has a tough texture – not brushed. It is full of mats and tangles; no wonder she sports such a short haircut and one that is easy to maintain. Her skin smells of blood and steel and is soft. Around her arms, there are visible cuts, the nastiest one being her wound on her shoulder. She is lanky and tall, long-limbed as a horse.

Her bag reeks of blood and steel. The tonfas make up for it – she has tonfas hidden within her bag, and there is dried blood in it. Her clothes supply are very limited – a bag of toiletries, underwear and quick-change street clothing. Ripped leggings, a shirt labeled with a curse word – these make Kuroh sigh and think that she wears indecent clothes. He sorts those away.

_I have to get her more decent ones,_ he thinks. For some reason, he sees her with long hair flowing and wearing a kimono, a smile gracing her face.

_She has to borrow from Kukuri-san, then._

Her phone he checks – laden with Ebooks – Game of Thrones, Heart of Darkness, Murakami, William Gibson and baking books. No pictures of herself. The music is full of instrumental melodies, rock anthems and hallyu.

Why is there such little things he knows about her?

She is darkness, mysterious and angry and roaring.

He has to know something: she is trying to isolate herself from everything familiar, away from everything, into the darkness. She sleeps in it – and doesn't want to wake up in the light.

The Faceless Man haunts her dreams, he thinks. She wakes up and continues the routine of her bitter duty and refuses to stop her mad quest for duty.

He misses his King. Now, he wants his King back more than ever. He wants the man to talk to him.

Ichigen knew Sai better than him. At a young age, she was wild and steely-willed, stubborn and incredibly incorrigible and full of hope. At seventeen, he estimates, she is bitter and cynical and fiery.

Her memory feels right and wrong – like fire than fuels passion, like death, in the darkest night, in the most prolific little despair. He sees red and black, despair and hate, of passion and love.

The last thought he thinks is how understanding can she really be, in the midst of the things that happen.

* * *

- / -

She is gone when the three will wake up. Kuroh expects it to happen.

_Please do not leave the school. _

_P.S.: Please borrow decent clothes from Kukuri-san. I believe she has better taste in clothes than you._

* * *

- / -

_December 1_

_Dear Ichigen-sama,_

_ Your little vassal brat is practically my stalker. He is annoying and has a soft heart. He thinks he owns me. I am not his chattel. I wish you are alive._

_-Sai _

_December 2_

_Dear Ichigen-sama,_

_ Why are you dead, gone on us? I want to sleep and never wake up in this world. I have lost hope. Your son doesn't pay me much attention. My father talks of me and him as if we are two peas in a pod meant to be taken to spouse and breed children. I would rather go lock myself and read myself to death._

_-Sai_

_December 3_

_Dear Ichigen-sama,_

_ Otou-san misses you. Obviously. He acts strange most of the time. For now, I've refused to go back to school. I run errands nowadays in the night, although your son is a hawk and orders Otou-san to tell me that I have curfew. The elders knows your son's mission. I think it's unfair; I've had terrible experiences myself, and he none. Someone with more experience should go._

_-Sai_

_Dear Ichigen-sama,_

_ I miss you. _

Kuroh reads her words, the spidery calligraphy. He sees pain. Every word becomes darker.

* * *

- / -

"You don't have a kimono yet?"

"Y-Yes," Sai says.

"Then I'll dress you up," Kukuri says nicely. "I'll make you look really nice, too. You have extensions, right? We could use those."

"But –"

"It's for the festival. It's for a good cause."

To Sai, Kukuri's smile becomes a ray of the sun.

"Very well."

* * *

- / -

"Do you have the files on her?"

The eager young hacker smiles.

"Yes." Her voice is pure gold.

"That's good. What does it say, Izumi-san?"

"Saika Sasayama. She's seventeen and enrolled currently in Ashinaka High school. Do we track her down?"

Munakata shakes his head.

"No. She has something I want. We cannot charge in as easily. She is a fast one. Is it the only one?"

"Yep."

"Then hack the whole country."

"Well, I DID find some, in a middle school in the country, by the mountains."

"Read it aloud."

"Saika Ishida, she has studied here in the city ten years ago. Then she relocated to the mountains."

"Is she a Strain?"

"Quite the contrary. Her parents are the members of a Clan. Her father is the Blackfish of the Colorless Clan."

"Interesting. No wonder she fights very well. Truly, Fugaku Ishida's daughter. Ever since that night, I've been hearing rumours they call her the Quicksilver of the Colorless. Anything else, Izumi?"

"She… She was the one Awashima-san almost took away. She's the girl I profiled by her fighting style to be either a vassal or an assassin."

"That as much we know now." Munakata presses his temples in thought. "She wields her father's speed and tonfas. Likewise, the Black Dog of the Colorless is also on the run."

"Kuroh Yatogami arrived the day after she did. I've hacked the whole surveillance in Shizume City. Isn't it strange?"

At that, Munakata knows this tune his hacker is singing to him.

"They are both almost the same age. They are also under the Colorless Clan. They are both under the service of Ichigen Miwa. Yet it seems that they do not work well together." Munakata touches his glasses. "Good work, Izumi."

Izumi smiles.

This was a red and black puzzle that he could crack easily. The Black Dog had Kotowari. The Quick Silver chased papers with her tonfas and speed. And there was the Colorless King who murdered Tatara Totsuka. The Red King needed to be stopped – along with a few others.

* * *

**Notes:** Hope you all enjoyed this new chappie! Sai's background and why she is so bitter will be explained later.


	6. Karma

**6: Karma**

* * *

"Do you have something to wear already, Sai, for the festival?" Kuroh asked her, following her.

"Of course I did."

_Dummy,_ she thinks. _You said you would never let me go_.

"That's good. Do you know how to wear a kimono properly?"

As he speaks, they deposit into the tent.

"Yes."

She's a liar. She knows it.

"No."

Shiro looks at both of them.

Sai had been introduced as a temporary roommate. Kuroh had filled the white-haired boy in about the Clans, the Kings. No doubt he had been told Sai was also a vassal –a supposed one – of Ichigen Miwa. Shiro had smiled at her. For a boy who was a suspect of murder, he was very thoughtful. For the past hours, she realized, she was being treated better by both Kuroh and Shiro than the men she had known. He was very warm and Sai very much tolerated his company.

"How would you know?!" Sai sighed. "I don't even know you that well!" Assuming a nice smile, she found herself laughing for the first time in months.

Shiro looked at Kuroh with pity.

"Prove it, then. Prove it that I don't know how to wear a kimono properly."

"Put your kimono on without my help. Everyone knows kimonos need two people to tie the obi –"

Kukuri's head pokes in.

"Sai-san, I will dress you up. When I'm done with you, you're going to look so good everyone can say you're a goddess."

- / -

Kukuri did a great job. By the time, Kuroh came out of the booth in his samurai attire, he spotted her quickly, with Neko, talking rather enthusiastically about food.

"…bake. You want to taste pastries?"

"Yes!"

Kukuri had pinned the long extensions back again. Secretly, Kuroh was revealed, since he wouldn't have to suffer the torture of forcing her into fixing her hair. Her hair had been full of tangles and mats and it was not his job to do so. Her now-long blue green hair was pinned up in a braid and a few lazy strands framed her face. It was a soft look for her. The pin that held her braid up in a bun was a sakura petal pendant. Her kimono was patterned and colored light violet, matching her eyes.

The feminine hairstyle Kukuri had done on her made her look soft and meek, nice and understanding. She looked decently pretty, for once. With the tight turquoise obi around her waist, he could appreciate the way her curves were visible and how lithe she looked. She reminded him of the goddess Kushina for a moment, with the meek face and soft eyes she had.

"Sai. You look –"

"Kuroh."

She addressed him with less hatred than before. Her tone was more polite. It might have been an effect of Kukuri or Shiro.

"Kuroh, you look very –" Her ears paled, then pinked. "You look very dashing today."

Kuroh's cheeks were on fire.

"You don't look too bad, Sai. You look pretty, in fact. Very pretty."

"Both of you are blushing – so you really do like each other!"

She changed the topic quickly.

"Kuroh-san, so what did you tell Shiro-san so far?"

"That you were on the run and you were also a vassal, except you were far more dangerous than me. I told him about you and Ichigen-sama. Neko seems to like you."

"Neko likes my baking."

"So does Shiro."

"I saw a bloody shirt on his room, Kuroh! I think I've found the murderer of Totsuka-san. He claims to be the Colorless King. I am convinced we have our target. Sure, Shiro seems to be a sweet guy but really, I think he is."

"You like Shiro. But not me."

Was he jealous?

"Jeez. I like him. Yet it does not stop me from my duties, Kuroh."

"Which is?"

"To kill him. He resembles the Colorless King. He has a bloody shirt. Is it not proof enough?"

"Then I say the same."

"Good –"

"About you."

"Huh?"

"Even if I find you attractive to some extent, it does not stop me from looking at you as a possible traitor or even too impetuous."

"Oh. So you are saying it."

"Saying what?"

"That you _**think**_ I am pretty attractive."

"It's how I see you."

"That works for me, too."

"Anyway, Kuroh, do you think he is innocent?"

"If he proves it, Sai."

"Kuroh, did you even listen to me at all? I said that he has a bloody shirt. He resembles the man in the video. Is it enough?"

"Well –"

"If he has to prove his innocence, then I suggest he uses Indirect Proving!"

"What does it mean?"

"Which means that Shiro has to prove that he was not present in the scene of the crime during which time it was committed, therefore, proves that he would not be the one who murdered the guy. If he has an excuse that he simply wasn't there to commit the crime, then it proves he simply did not commit it at all!"

"I see why."

Kuroh looked at Shiro wistfully then at her.

"If it helps us, then you might not be a traitor at all."

- / -

_She's a child, back then._

"_Who is this King? I demand to see him! I demand to see him! I want my father back!"_

_She yells, she screeches. Her hair is wild and messy and her eyes are wild. They run in circles of purple._

"_Saika-chan," her mother whispers. "Your father's still busy with the King and his vassal, who's about your age –"_

_Saika ran._

- / -

"What to you then is a traitor, Kuroh?"

She hisses this in his face as they walk around, trying to gather clues about Shiro.

Silence ensues.

"What is a traitor to you? Am I one? What did I do to deserve it, Kuroh?" She points a finger at herself. "What?"

Kuroh frowns at her.

"What did you do? You ran away from me. You allied yourself with HOMRA. You affiliated yourself with them. You did not listen to my orders. You started a scuffle in the Shizume City. The Blue Clan wants your head. They thought you were an illegal alien. They thought you a Strain. You forsook our master's orders."

"I never joined HOMRA officially!"

"Yet SCEPTER4 claims that you were under HOMRA during the time you started the fight. You were, according to my sources, were an animal. They've been calling you the Quick Silver of the Colorless."

"And you call me a traitor."

She laughed bitterly.

"Let me get this straight, Sai. You were under HOMRA while you were here. You slept in their bed, and under their watch, you started a fight. Then it happened the Blue Clan was there and wanted your head."

"I said I never joined it officially!"

"Then how is it that the Blue Clan thinks so?"

"It's because someone took me in!"

"Who is it, then?"

"Totsuka Tatara."

Kuroh's face paled. He suddenly grabbed her wrists.

"What did he do to you, Sai?" His breath was hot against her cheek, moist – a transgression in itself.

"Stop it! It was not like that!"

"Then what is?"

"Totsuka-san opened HOMRA to me. I – I was homeless and a runaway. So I sought refuge. He let me in and I slept in their bar. I never shared a bed with anyone there, promise! I didn't let them take my maidenhead!"

"Is it really true, Saika?"

"Really. Totsuka-san was very nice to me. I loved him."

"No."

Kuroh rubbed the back of his head.

"Stop it, please. I think I know enough."

_He doesn't believe me. He doesn't understand me._

Under the back of her hand, the number poured out. She typed in her phone, all concerned. She had to prove to him then that no one had harmed her in HOMRA. Prove to him that she had loved Totsuka, and he had seen her as someone human, someone he took care of. He didn't take advantage of her.

_Mikoto-san,_

_I'm very sorry I left. The Blue Clan wants my head. Either way, I need your help._

_-Saika_

- / -

It happens that the phone rings – but it is not with its owner. The intelligent hacker answers it, and beside her, hovers Reisi Munakata, a man of puzzles and sophistication.

Bach's _Air_ plays in the background, a contrast to Mikoto's mellow rock ringtone.

"Who is it?"

Izumi reads the message.

Her eyes gleam as she holds the phone up for her boss to see.

"So we finally got her, eh?" she asks happily.

"We can track her." Munakata is content.

Izumi rises from her seat. Her black hair is frizzing out of her tight clamp. "That's good then, Munakata-san." She hides a yawn.

"Your shift's over already, Izumi-kun."

"Really? That's great. My aunt has been calling me like hell. I have an errand to run to."

Izumi unpins the clamp, her hair falling loose and wavy over her shoulders.

"Good luck, then. You did great."

"Really? Thanks."

- / -

"Still keeping an eye on her?"

"Of course, you idiot. Totsuka-san asked us to, remember?"

"Of course."

"I think he loved her."

"Then why didn't he go out with her?"

"Idiot. He loved her like a brother did his sister. He really had a big heart – like Mikoto does."

"Ugh."

Yata stands and gathers his skateboard under one arm.

"This is so suffocating. I need some air."

"Take your time," Kusanagi calls, almost amused.

- / -

She was here – her hair was shorter, but she was still cute. No, prettier. Her hair was tied in two shoulder-length braids and she had a cute ribbon on the back of her head. Over a gray tunic dress, she sported a navy blue trench coat, unbuttoned. On her feet, she wore knee-high boots lined with white fur. Her bag was beige and knitted, and she looked more mature.

Yata caught her looking at him.

"Yata-san?"

Her voice was the tingle of bells.

Yata cringed.

"I-Izumi-san?"

She grinned and waved at him.

"If it isn't you! You've gotten taller!"

"I-I-It's been a l-long time," he managed to say. Back then, he used to be scared of her.

"It's been such a long time."

"I know."

"Where are you going to college?"

"M-Me?"

"Yes, silly!"

She giggled and poked him playfully in the arm.

"I – I'm just working around here."

"Oh. I took a vocational course somewhere but eventually, I came back. I originally planned to be a detective."

"A-And w-what happened?"

"Plans changed. I got a job. The pay was good, and my schedule's not so bad. I took a few courses after graduation."

"S-So now?"

"I'm a hacker."

She beamed.

"O-Okay."

Dammit. Why was he such a pussy with girls? He wasn't even scared of Sai at all – until she throttled him. She had been one of the most traumatizing females he had ever known. Pretty, sure, but scary, yes. He had to leave before Izumi would notice how awkward and stupid he was around her.

And she reminded him a bit of Fushimi, too – she was friends with him, though not close.

"Wait, Yata-san!"

"W-What is it?"

"I want to talk to you. It's something. You see, it's been a long time since we last saw each other. And well, I hope we can really talk. Please meet me in the McDo place tonight, can you?"

"I-I'll try."

"Can I get your number?"

Yata flushed.

He eventually relented.

When she was gone and said goodbye, he felt better.

- / -

"Oh dammit."

Three heads turned to look at her.

Sai was changed back to her normal self. Her hair was short again, and yet, neater. She clutched her phone nervously in the air, as if there was something that made it dangerous – untouchable to her fingers.

"What is it?" Kuroh asked before Shiro could open his mouth.

"H-He's not answering!" Sai ran her fingers agitatedly through her hair.

"Who?"

"Mikoto-san! I have his number – but he didn't answer me at all!"

"Maybe it's on purpose."

"No – he would never. Mikoto-san has a heart that is very large. He allowed me to be protected under HOMRA. I know this."

"Then something must have come up. Are there any HOMRA members under your contacts?"

"Yes. Totsuka-san gave it to me."

Izumo was her only hope. It had to have a good explanation why Mikoto wasn't answering her.

_Izumo,_

_Where's Mikoto-san?_

- / -

The soccer stadium was wide – and while Kuroh and Shiro were talking, Sai's head was filled with something else.

Where was Mikoto?

Her phone hummed, and she checked it.

_He turned himself in_.

Shit.

As she closed her phone, something caught the attention of her ears.

Rustles.

"Kuroh, I don't think this is a safe –"

He didn't listen to her.

Then there was a blur of light. She was caught.

It was all her fault. SCEPTER 4.

* * *

**Notes:** Hope you all liked this chapter! There's a lot of UST here, so enjoy the chemistry.


	7. A Fury of Flames

**7: Fury of Flames**

* * *

They took him away from her. They took her preys. One by one, they deprived her of her revenge. Something tugged at her.

Kuroh. Kuroh. Kuroh.

"So we finally got her," one member confirms - this busty blondie who had asked her if she was a Strain. "Izumi can get a promotion for this."

The lights drowned – then capsized into the light of day. Artificial light became natural, the Kamikaze. Suddenly, it was the Blue City, the azure sky towering over her.

_Neko. Her illusions._

Sai clenches fist.

Two bodies fall to the ground, and the third and fourth ones come in. They come in top speed. Their sabers are drawn. But Sai knew better what to do. She was the daughter of the BlackFist of the Colorless. She was the Quick Silver of the Colorless Clan. She drew her tonfas softly.

"Come at me, then!"

In a few strikes, she was fighting.

"Shiro, don't watch!"

Yet Shiro didn't. He watched her change. Her body became different. Instead of the boyishly awkward girl earlier, he saw her transform. She was light on her feet and fast. Her hands and fingers – they were long and speedy. Where Kuroh was graceful and fast, Sai was almost even better, she was strong and fast. Where Kuroh was refined, she was raw and energetic.

Her tonfas slashed with accuracy and deadliness. No wonder she had been called the Quick Silver. Her tonfas were murder weapons. Her feet were fast. Her fingers were dexterous. She was Mercury itself – silver, fast and strong. She was faster than Kuroh.

The two bodies slept, knocked out.

"Whoa. You never told me you could fight-"

"Hush now."

Suddenly, he smelled her: jasmine-smelling perfume and a mixture of steel and blood. Dried blood.

"There are more coming."

"Sai?"

"Yes, Shiro?"

"How can a man be scared even if he is afraid?"

"Is it even possible?" Kuroh asks softly.

"Yes, it is."

"How would you know?"

"Because I feel so. I've been through that."

For the first time, Shiro realizes that she is human and is capable of redemption.

* * *

- / -

"_I want to be a vassal!" _

"_Saika-chan, you're too young!" the Blackfish protests. He holds her up in the air. Her arms wave wildly._

"_I want to!"_

"_Fugaku," his wife whispers._

_The dark-haired young boy catches the child's eye. He smiles at her, as if her view is endearing._

"_Saika-chan, it's –"_

"_There is no problem."_

_Ichigen's word is law._

* * *

- / -

"Guess I'd better get to work. It seems Fushimi is growing impatient." Reisi Munakata speaks. His eyes scan her – she knows his suspicions.

"He wants me, Kuroh!"

Anger. Impatience. He sees it on her face.

"No, I don't think so."

Neko squeals.

"As I suspected, a third party. An unknown Strain was behind this."

Sai grits her teeth. She expects him to rattle off her name. She is a criminal. The Blue King wants her dead. HOMRA has watches on her. Kuroh of the Colorless has her under his command. What else can be expected?

"Let me fight him," she volunteers. "I owe him something. The Blackfish remembers – so do I."

The Blue King snaked his way in front of her face.

"So we meet again, Quick Silver." He eyed her tonfas cautiously. He had seen her fight before, Sai noted. He had seen how fast she was capable of. He had seen how an opportunist she was in the state of battle. He had seen the lines and graphs she had drawn with her fist and how she was no easy kill. Undefeated. Unbent. Unbroken – mercury on the brink of its horizon.

"I never imagined you can be a wolf in the battlefield," he commented. "I thought you were a harmless brawler at first, but I already had my own suspicions."

"So you had me profiled," Sai said swiftly. "I know you had the power to."

"Yes. Your acting skills were a few bits above the average. Almost had me convinced – except for those moves and that quick temper."

"Cut to the chase, Blue King." Sai bit her chapped lips. "I don't enjoy my meals to be sugarcoated. I want them bitter and harsh and unyielding."

The King smiled at her. "Interesting. I never expected this lady to be so…blunt. I was initially in doubt of you, as you proved yourself to be a girl needy of a place here in the city, and I thought you were not really harmless. Those tonfas prove it all."

_They were not mine at all, to begin with._

"They belong to the Blackfish of the Colorless. Used to, until he retired and took a beautiful young heiress to wife."

_Mother?_

Reisi Munakata was a filthy liar. As far as she had known, her father always said that he went on to fight with tonfas as he married all the time.

"Liar."

"Sai-"

Kuroh gripped her tightly. "I promised myself never to let you go. Letting you do so will be a grave error. It's my duty – to protect you."

"From what? Yourself? Myself?" A trickle of sweat fell down her cheek.

"From your greatest enemy: your anger."

"You two are quite… the unlikely pair. The Black Dog and the Quick Silver, daughter to the Blackfish and the former King's vassal."

"And how is it your business?"

"It worries me frankly, you, a young lady of such high birth and caliber, are with this young man." Munakata fingered his glasses. As he spoke, the shuffling of more feet was more audible. More men were coming. They were going to be surrounded by those SCEPTER 4. The illusions had vanished.

"We're outnumbered," Sai muttered to herself.

"Uh, you think we should surrender?" Shiro asked.

"I'll hold him off."

"K-Kuroh!" Sai protested.

"The two of you can fend for yourselves."

"Hey, what about –"

Too late. Kuroh had used this weird power of his. Once he was done securing the exit for Neko and Shiro, he nodded at her grimly.

"I know you are a woman attached to duty. Perhaps it will be your honor to do it along me, now."

Sai said nothing.

A storm of swords and a clash of men later, she found herself fighting back-to-back indirectly. Kuroh was taking on Munakata, and she his vassals. The vassals were damn strong. As she crossed her tonfas to block their attacks, she felt a little uneasy at the thought of Kuroh taking on the Blue King. She felt worried, even, as Kuroh was hers. He was her prey, not a King's, she was destined to be the one to murder her, not the Blue King.

Sai kicked one off her feet and hit him with her tonfas on the head.

A loud slap interrupts.

"Didn't you hear me?"

As she tries to finish off the fight, her beat is a march. It is Symphony No. 5, dancing on the hell of the Seventh Canto of the Inferno. There is a clash of men, in front of her – Munakata and Kuroh, who resort to hand-to-hand combat. She admits, she uses her speed to overtake her opponent, but Kuroh, with all his pretty grace, is younger and less experienced in fights than mature Munakata. It unsettles her, worries her so much she'll lose him.

She cannot let him be like this. But he fights – as she is quick, he is fast. As she is dexterous, long-limbed and quick, he hits with will and his heart. But he falls again, and she finds herself breathless. Somehow, her fire has cooled – her murder target is weak.

_Kill him. Kill him._ Yet something else resounds: a beat of a heart that wants to take him away to someplace safe.

Inwardly, Sai is shocked to see all this: that a man can be true and steadfast and be a real knight. That a woman with a man's will can have a heart, too.

* * *

- / -

"The young man is the new King who will replace Ichigen Miwa."

Sai bites her lips. Her fingers shake. Kuroh, fight. Kuroh, die. She watches words fly out of his mouth, honest.

"And you."

Her.

"What do you want from me? A punch? A fight. I can put up. I am the Blackfish's daughter, I am the Quick Silver. I have made a vow to never bow down," Sai replied warily. "If you take Kuroh's head, then Shiro may as well take yours. And he'll give it to me to relish, even if everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. So does mine."

Munakata chuckled and smiled. "The daughter of the Blackfish, truly! No, my dear, I don't demand heads, I demand pawns."

"I am not one. I am a vassal. I am pledged."

"To who, my dear? It interests me very much."

_Courtesy is a lady's armor. _

She edges nearer, daring herself to act like a lady. How come it never came to be easy? She was a girl. But she had the iron of a man under those looks. It was to save her life, and Kuroh's (nice, yes) ass as well as Shiro's.

"To the one who replaces Miwa Ichigen. I am a woman with a weak and feeble body but my soul is promised to my Clan, sir."

The light shines – silver as mercury.

* * *

- / -

"It's not serious my foot!"

Sai practically scraped the blood off his face with her face towel. Shiro and Neko watched in the distance, half-fascinated by her wiping Kuroh's face.

"You protected Shiro. And you… defended me. Now the debt is paid. I don't owe you anymore."

She is about to scrub his nose when his hands capture her wrist.

"No."

"Why do you say so, Kuroh?"

"I… can't let you do this to me. You've seen enough, Sai."

"Well, I don't approve. You really need to get cleaned and I care not for your pride. I insist. I am the daughter of the Blackfish – no one dares to defy me nor my will."

Kuroh smiled at her as she wiped the corner of his lips.

"Spoke well like one. You… You have defied enough to be the man that you could have been…"

"Hush."

"No, I cannot." Kuroh stared at Neko with some kind of suspicion. "I think I've figured it out."

"Huh?"

"That girl"-Neko, no doubt-"has the power to alter memories with her illusions, Sai. In reality, there has been no concrete proof that Yashiro Isana even exists."

"Then everything else is a lie," Sai concludes harshly.

She felt Shiro's eyes on her.

"Worry not, Shiro. I know what it feels like to have everything you know that everything is a lie. That the lies cover the dark truth we would rather not wish to know at all."

Shiro wonders at her.

* * *

- / -

Izumi waits.

* * *

- / -

Everything unfolds – the way the night lights drift for the night.

"I think he wants you," Kuroh tells her.

"Wants me?"

"As a vassal, no doubt. I see why. Shiro admires you. I can see it in the way he looks at you."

"I should not be. Kuroh, we are not yet sure if he will replace Ichigen. Up to then, I have made some plans. If he does become the King, I will turn this game of thrones over and join him with you. I am born a vassal, die a vassal."

"And if he dies?"

Sai scowls.

"I become the Faceless Man in my dream. I wander around, with little purpose. I've seen the world better than you do."

"You don't have to. You can always return to me. Watanabe-san doesn't mind your presence. She must want to make a lady out of you. Your sons will serve the next King, and might even be a King."

"That's not me at all." She sadly hangs her head. "Where am I going to live? Will I go back to school?"

"Live with me, then. I'll take care of you. Your parents have enough worries on their heads. I promised our King I would take good care of you. Your brothers worry about you, too."

"No. My brothers are not like me. They want their lives lived to conform to society. Me, no. I am isolated. I am alienated. Like you. This is the far circuit of fate."

"Then I assure you, I will not let you be alone."

When she looks back at him, his face is soft, his tone caring.

Can such a thing be? Can he care for her? Can he protect better? Ah, the world and its mysteries are difficult to comprehend.

"How can you prove it? I've seen so much darkness, Kuroh." Not for the first time, she feels lighter than the chain of steel she has been for a few months. "I've been harmed. I've trained to be tough. Can't you let it –"

"Have faith. Believe in our master's words. They never fail the good."

* * *

**Notes:** Hope you all liked this chapter!


	8. Faceless Men

**Chapter 8: Faceless Man**

* * *

The Faceless Men haunt her at night. They appear as men of the night. No – they are the leading men of it.

"Sai?"

"Yes?"

"If I ever become a King…"

"What is it you wish?"

"That you…"

"Be your vassal?"

"No. More than that."

"And what is it?"

His lady wife? His good mistress? The queen? His sweet lady?

"To be a friend."

Sai is relieved.

"So I won't be your wife. I don't want to. I don't intend to, Shiro. If it's Kuroh's idea I take that silly little notion to the head, I will not hesitate to murder him."

Shiro finds it amusing. He laughs.

"Murder him? He's such a funny but nice guy."

"I swore an oath once. I swore to murder him. I wrote his name in my blood. I take my offenses and settle them. A grudge is a meal served cold if it is unredressed."

"Why would you hate him? I've seen how he looks at you."

"He looks at me with the eyes of a judge. He wants me dead. It is a mutual thing."

"No."

Shiro lowers his voice.

"I think he likes you."

Sai breaks in a gale of guffaws.

"Are you serious?"

"Of course I am. Believe me, Sai. For once, I'm not lying. I think you like him, too. You're… softer and harder on him than you are on Neko and me."

As they talk, SCEPTER 4 is hounding Shiro on the trails.

"Besides, Kuroh talks of you highly. He says you make a good vassal. You are a fine fighter. You can bake, too. He loves your baking. He told me to expect you to be a fighter. He's told me of your father."

Her throat tightens.

"Ah, the Black Fish of the Colorless."

"He said your father was one of the strongest vassals, pity that he was vassal to the weakest King, the Colorless King. He refused to bow down easily, to conform to the ideals of others, which was why he called himself the 'Black Fish.' Fish was the symbol of his family, back from a line of samurais."

_So Kuroh really explained some stuff._

"And also, he blended in with the darkness. He was renowned for his speed, his grace and power. Stubborn, fierce, loyal. He was very proficient with the katana."

"If Kuroh is referring to my scuffles with the Blue King, let him rot in Gehenna," Sai finds herself saying dryly. "It is none of his business."

"No. The tonfas, too. You take after your father. You really are his daughter, too."

"And you want me as a vassal?"

"Nooo – I consider you a friend."

Friend. Vassal.

"Promise me if you ever be the King, let me serve you. I'll protect you with my life. It's my destiny to serve you as a fighter, as a self-made woman of my will. It is not my destiny to wait on you and let you sell me as some chattel made to bend to your will only. You are the next King, you are one reason why I should believe in things. I've lost my innocence too early. I'm only hoping that you can restore it to me."

"You're still young." Shiro smiles. "I do wish you'd lighten up more, my friend. Can you promise me that?"

"Very well."

"Please do. I am serious."

Back then, the power of all Auras did not exist. People were dying all over the world, she remembers, her father's voice echoing in her head, as well as Ichigen-sama's. The world was not so young, with the centuries long passed and gone. The war raged back then, and then the era of the Aura – began.

There had been only one King. One King, strong and mighty, the discoverer of Auras.

And then the Auras started to divide, colliding powers on their own terms. Colors, with properties, Red for fire, Blue for lightning, Gold for metal. Colorless – it was her father's choice to join the weakest King.

Her father loved the man. He wanted to protect the weak, and do everything for him.

Sometimes, she recounts to herself, she has forgotten all about the point of being a vassal.

For her, it is nothing but a game amongst Kings, their clashes, a storm of swords and constant war. Sometimes, she has forgotten about peace. Sometimes, she remembers that because of her own indifference growing up, she tends to bring out her sadistic side – and thus life is a constant war.

A life with a King, adaptation to warfare, conformation to become the warrior she thought was ideal for her King. A life fighting all the time.

She has forgotten.

She is a vassal. Before that, she is a fighter. She is a daughter, once so loved. She is a girl, who only wants to love – and be loved back.

While the school settles into panic, Sai is not a manic idiot to join the incredulous pack of students. She has them secured – and in no time, runs to see the fighting.

Her heart beats steadily, the circuit of a red organ. The truth is already unclouding with Shiro, but somehow, everything feels different.

Her world is no longer gray. It is Shiro who makes it colorful, Neko with her shameless actions. And Kuroh, who worries her unconditionally, with his gentle ways and quiet determination. She just joins, as it is her duty, with the will of the blood of the Black Fish.

Either way, she has her King – and a life before her.

The date is a failure.

Yata leaves too early, and Izumi is not disappointed. However, she is not willing to give her disappointment up to fight HOMRA. A hacker she may be, but a fighter she can be. She wades her way through the throngs of people, ready to attack.

Yata disappoints her. He always has.

Yata has been her eye's apple for years. The boy with his bespectacled friend, the manic Fushimi, has been the guy she likes for years. For since high school, she always imagines it'll be him who makes her feel warm and alive with the beating of a living heart. Yata and his beloved ways of making her feel secure.

Not Fushimi.

Not the young guy who does everything to get his way.

She loves Yata, and he's been the reason why she is manic to work. She wants to pursue him.

Anything for him – she will do it.

* * *

"_I love him, Kanako. But I love you, too."_

"_The best way to protect him, Fugaku –" She tries to put his hands on her shoulders, but he looks at her strangely._

_She grips his wrists._

"_What is then the best way?"_

"_The best way to protect Ichigen is to put a baby in my belly." She grits her teeth, a look for a beauty half-sophisticated, half-mad._

"_P-Put a baby in your belly! What of your honor? You are not married yet. Neither am I. I am not promised. You are."_

"_I will help you find honor and protect him – and I will do anything to achieve it. Even if it means abandoning my family, Fugaku."_

_She is radiant, a smile gracing her face._

"_I am not scared of abandoning my name. I want the same honor, too. I do not love the man I am promised to." _

"_Then you are willing to throw away pride and wealth – all for honest honor, me and Ichigen-kun?"_

_She shakes her head._

"_Why, yes, of course!"_

* * *

- / -

"_Yata- I like you!"_

_The voice is full of confidence – and the mirror shows a girl neatly brushing her hair. Black hair and pretty eyes. A looker._

"_Izumi-chan! Yata's coming!"_

_The girl drops the brush and runs away._

* * *

- / -

_In the dark, she is a child. In the gray, her mind becomes vividly dimmer. _

"_Saika?" A young boy's voice echoes._

"_Saika? Ichigen-sama is looking for you! He says your training is already over."_

_No reply._

"_Saika?"_

_He ventures deeper – only to gasp at the sound of speed whistling in the air. Diamond and steel fly past him in daggers, in the silence of the speed of sound and the cold darkness._

_She is a year younger than him, the boy thinks. She is smart and constantly at war with herself and the environment. But her training – is it really her?_

_On the tree just beside him lands the dagger._

"_Be careful!" says the child ten yards away from him. She is a lady, dressed in a silk furisode the color of violets, her hair tied up elegantly. But her hair is mussed up and there are rents in her furisode. Her geta are off – the pair he had seen on the way out of the house, dirty._

"_Saika-sama! Your mother, Lady Kanako will –"_

_Her eyes blaze._

"_Be quiet. Not a word." _

_He sees the pale fingers, the new blood dripping from them. "If you tell Mother, I will tell her you hurt me."_

"_Please, stop it."_

_She drops the weapon._

"_Remember this, Kurosuke: anyone can be killed." _

_When he walks to her, she buries her face in his shoulder and lets him tend to her cuts and rents. _

- / -

* * *

Kukuri is nowhere to be seen. Nowhere to be found. She is gone with the wind. This leaves Sai rather disappointed as she had found the girl the closest thing she had to a female friend.

"She's not here."

From the corner of her eye, Fushimi smiles wickedly at her.

"It amazes me after everything you've done you still are standing here, free and far from the law."

"Define law, Fushimi." She points to the newly wiped tonfas resting on her waist.

He scowls. "Fuck you."

"Wouldn't you rather do it yourself?"

"No."

Fushimi clicks his tongue to her chagrin.

"Then what is it?"

He smirks.

"Don't you know?"

"What?"

"You're telling me you don't know."

Sai's fingers curve around her weapon.

"If you are not going to explain so, I will cut your manhood off and feed it to goats. Anyone can be killed."

"This – from someone younger than me?" He spits. "Bitch."

"Knave," she begins, her temper thinning.

_A wise woman curses very sparingly._

Her air becomes lighter.

"Tell me, will you?"

"You, fucking the Black Dog." He laughs cruelly. "Isn't it a good idea? The Quick Silver fucking the Black Dog, isn't it so?"

"Me? Fucking him?" She shakes her head and levels up her weapon.

"Never!"

This signals the beginning of a storm of steel.

* * *

- / -

The Black Fish is a man known for his stealth and steel. His wife is the daughter of a house of the rich, a samurai's line. The Black Fish stood out from others – black sheep of his house, he took his own self away and swore himself to live by his friend's side forever.

What a fairy tale.

Kings are not kind. They are cruel. They are materialistic, manipulative. Their queens can be fuck tapes, seductresses, or simply trying to conform themselves to the "Good wife" example. Their vassals can be traitors, smelling so damn sweet of the flowers from their bases, but in reality, hearts complex of betrayal as the maze of the famed little Labyrinth.

But Shiro is kind. Neko is strange. She is loyal. And Kuroh, for all Sai hates him, is the man kindest to her, besides Totsuka Tatara.

Kuroh tended to her. He watches over her. He keeps her in line. He keeps her within his line of sight, and frowns if she rebels or simply wants more.

All this within the city she hates and loves.

* * *

- / -

Fushimi finds her threatening. She has a bad temper, she is very fast, quite skilled and ill to cross.

His day is not going well.

And his little comrade, Izumi, has her head on the clouds.

"Fushimi," she says, her eyes dreamier than usual.

"What is it?" He addresses her formally.

"Please don't tell."

Her head hangs, a river of black.

"What?"

"I might resign."

He clicks his tongue.

* * *

- / -

Kanako still has not forgotten everything. But she trusts - Miwa's vassal, her beloved Fugaku, and Kuroh, and her own daughter.

Years have weathered her own self, but she is still a lady. After giving birth to five children after being taken to wife by one of the strongest men in the world of the Kings and Clans, she is still elegant and beautiful, with her mane of deep green hair so dark it was almost close to black. Her face is soft, her features delicate and very beautiful.

She had sacrificed years of wealth for her King. She had sacrificed her looks to honor. And she had sacrificed her betrothal to marry the honorable man she loved for a long time. It was a marriage she enjoyed thoroughly. And things worked out very well. A happy life, a happy marriage, full of children and chemistry, the warm embrace of the Black Fish's arms and her children who were the joy of her heart. It had goodness, honor, none of the coldness she thought she would find in the heart of the most skilled fighter she knew.

"I've entrusted everything, hence, I need not worry," she tells Watanabe-san at tea.

"Entrust?"

"Everything I have been worried about for the past time. I'm growing old now, I'm afraid, and my husband still wants a child."

"Aah, are you referring to your children?"

"Children?"

As she says the word, Kanako's heart heaves. She remembers them: Yuichi, the eldest, faithful and loyal. He had her dark hair, made black, her features. But as he grew up, Kanako saw Fugaku in his facial structure. Kenichi, lean and scholarly. He had been of her making, too. Then came her most hearted one: Saika, named for the variety of colors in flowers she had loved so well when she had been much younger. Saika, trained to be a little lady in every word and deed, expected to marry a King (Kanako had hoped she would marry the Blue King when she was of age after she would finish her studies and get a nice career) or a professional. Kanako had wished her only daughter to fulfill her own dream of making a name in the city as a chef, but her own dreams had been trampled by her own family, insisting she marry. She would be safe in the city, far away from the violence of the Clans and Kings.

Then there was also Ryo, artistic and destined to become a great fighter – until death took him away a few months ago. Ieyasu was only six, and too young to remember. He was shy, also artistic, a man of arts. It was now only Saika who really burdened Kanako's own heart.

She was growing older every year, and the changes made it worse for Kanako and Kuroh, who helped her with dealing with her. At times, she screamed and behaved like a hoyden, then would go overtime training.

Her chest was filling out so late, and her hair was rugged like a boy's. It broke Kanako's heart to see her child act so unruly and strange. She was seventeen, and she enjoyed baking, though overexerted herself on training.

Her daughter was a Faceless Man, the circuit girl, daughter of the dark.

And Kanako wanted someone to help her fix it.

She remembers drinking and talking to the Black Dog about her daughter, who would become as beautiful as her one day. Her daughter whose looks were wasted on blood and violence and war. She remembers the boy's promises to bring her back, this gallant knight Kanako wants her daughter to take to husband.

Fugaku was gallant as Kuroh would be, rougher and manlier, of the steadfast and melancholic nature that the cold borne him out of the trout his house was founded on. She sees a bit of herself and Fugaku in Kuroh, her husband in Sai.

Faceless men are dangerous – and Sai fits such a trope.


	9. The Spot

**Chapter 9:** The Spot

* * *

His breath is hot. His lips are surprisingly soft, unwilling to crush but at the same time gentle. His face and tongue are jazz on the lips, his tongue unyielding and melancholy as the land he is born into. Defiant and desiring, stirring leaching waves on this river that runs. His skin is warm, flushed and pale. Under his hot breath, there is the scent of a faint mix of cinnamon, cinnabar and mint – a reminder of his master.

That is how Sai remembers the feel of Kuroh's lips on hers. Oddly, she finds this weird.

It's like kissing a statue made of marble, but somehow the thought of such a memory makes her blush, makes her feel warm and nostalgic under her guarded eyes.

"He's given you his Aura, has he?" Kuroh asks.

"Yes, he did."

He notices her blushing.

"Are you cold?"

"No. I was thinking.."

"Of what?"

She looks away.

"Come on, Sai. Tell me about it."

Her lips press together.

"I have to stop seeing you. I've lost a lot of things here in Shizume. I have a better purpose in here. Kuroh, admit it: we've both never thought about life after this mission, after we get the King."

"Stop seeing me? You're cutting me off?"

"Hell yes. I can't get involved with you anymore."

"Saika. That's a poor excuse." He rushes to her. His hands wrestle with her hair. "Why are you cutting me off? Is me? Please tell me."

"I-"

She did not want to end this way. She had lost Tatara. She had lost the boy who took her in, and she had lost her King, after finding him through hate and violence. She had lost food, hope. She had trapped herself with Kuroh, after leaving everything behind. It was her problem and Kuroh was innocent of it.

Why was she so attached to Kuroh? Why did her heart beat so fast at the thought of him? Why?

Did she love him for all the hate she had for him? Did he even love her back? What was this thing that bothered her about him?

She could never be with him. She could never be the girl for him. She would marry a King or a vassal. She would have sons who would be Kings, vanguards, knights, vassals. She would be a queen, wife to a great King who lorded over his Clan and watch her with the eyes of a hawk. She would bake, for the love of food she bore. She would marry a normal man, who would treat her well but forbid her from fighting that she had loved as a child. She would marry a man who never understood the short circuit of a life served under the service of a King who loved and whose affection she wanted so badly.

Kuroh would never love her. He'd never think of it. He was Ichigen's son, the heir. He would marry a great lady and be a vassal to Shiro, may he return. He had blue blood, she had only the loyalty of her father stirring in her veins.

Even if they had kissed only once, she never forgot the feel of his lip on hers. It hadn't been her first – it had been her third kiss. But his – she bet the feel of her mouth crushing his was something alien to him. He had been a knight who had never kissed, never been kissed. Despite his active participation in local activities that were almost parallel to the melee and tourneys of the medieval practices of courtly love and chivalry, he never offered his hand and the one time he had won over the other boys, it had been her name he looked for – and crowned her as the queen of love and beauty, the fairest of the other girls.

She knew Kuroh didn't like her as far as concerned but his knighting of her as his lady seemed so out of the blue, even back then. Maybe because she was as familiar to him as the beating of his own heart.

"I don't want to see you anymore. Even if Shiro is dead, the only job we have to do is wait. I want to do it alone. I don't want you. I want to do something with my life while he's gone, waiting. It doesn't have to have you in it."

Kuroh was shock-still, then he processed her words.

"No. I won't let you."

She started to move away, but he held out for her wrist.

"Why? I'm not yours. I'm not your girlfriend. I'm not anything to you, am I? You branded me a criminal, but I'm not standing for any of your illusions anymore. Unless Shiro himself is here to point it out, we have no more connections. We are nothing to each other, haven't we?"

"I thought you understood so well!"

"I do, and that's my decision. We've been playing all along with each other."

"We don't. Everything we have is real. You're not a thing to me."

"Then what am I to you? A fuck toy? No. You can't do anything to me." She pats the tonfas beneath her heavy jacket. "I am protected. I have the Silver Aura. I can fight you, if you wish."

"I don't want to fight you for such a petty reason. You forgot." He presses a finger to his temple. "You forgot how I judge people."

"Years of knowing you and I forget? That's stupid, Kuroh."

"What you are to me – and me to you is –"

"Unreasonable."

"I beg your pardon, my lady."

"Excuse me?"

"I want to settle this over, my lady. You and I know this. We are no longer just vassals. What we are to each other is something more different. Don't you notice? Even Shiro says it, too. Before our master's death, he said the connection was _**strong**_."

"If I were you, I'd forget about it." Sai's words are quick. "Forget about me. Forget all the things we have done to each other."

Hold her hand. Kiss her. Hold her in his arms. Nurse her injuries. Lie to him. The list went on and on.

It troubled her.

"I don't want to see you."

"I have more reasons to see you," he retracted.

"We shouldn't."

"Neko wants your baking," Kuroh began. "And so do –"

"No. No. Shiro is the only reason I want in your clan. He is my King."

"As he was mine, too."

The two of them glared at each other.

"You should stop being so hard-headed. I know you are capable of gentleness and understanding. I know you are. You can't keep running away from me."

"No."

"I-I'll –"

But she is gone – mercury and silver and shining fluidly through the throngs of a countless people programmed in the wiring of their lives and the intersection of light, dark and the gray area of life that exists in the city. She becomes expressionless, faceless. She becomes the steel hanging from the metal lampposts, the foundation of the black that lets foremen from karaoke bars out of their cocoon and lure people in to release stress.

* * *

- / -

The second night, he takes to running some errands. The day is harsh, and unyielding although notably less stubborn than the land he and Sai was born and raised into. In the pouring of sunlight, the HORMA members are apart and close in their own griefs: the hothead redhead vanguard, Yata, is chained to his own silence while Kamamoto lingers with him. The bartender, suave and handsome Izumo is suddenly the Black Prince, a man of the mixture of a boiling volcano ready to erupt and the cold blisters of the moon, chilling and unnerving with the smooth way he has with others.

The karaoke bars are open, and songers drone in with their languished voices, singing with the heavy ambiance that almost rivals the smooth flow of poetry that Li Po writes of in the celebrated hymns of the Wine Poem in honor of the solace man has. Foremen call out to the workers of the afternoon to bask in the glow of the artificial city lights, join him in the wired circuit that tries and tires out the stress of living in a society where one is expected to conform and work to its own standards.

As he passes by the HOMRA bar, he notices a tall girl robed in deep blue, a saber almost covered at her side, shivering. Her eyes are blue, her hair black to the color of jet and she seems younger – and familiar. From the saber, he knows she's SCEPTER4, the amazing hacker. Her eyes are filled with longing, too. When her blue eyes clash with his gray ones, both know at sight each other. He is the Black Hound, she is the prodigious SCEPTER 4 hacker who rose through the ranks of the Police Form easily.

"I didn't expect you to be here," he begins, nodding at her politely.

"As do I," she began. Her eyes dart to the red sign glowing a ruddy neon in the darkness. "Where's your girlfriend? The unpredictable and fast one who ran from HOMRA and got herself almost arrested?"

She's talking about Sai.

He shakes his head. It almost hurts to think about the willful woman-child who had almost surpassing loveliness. He had loved her father and mother.

"I see you don't want to talk about it," she earnestly replied. Her cheeks flared when a certain redhead passed by, his skateboard tucked under his arm. When the said person had left, she lowered her head.

"What about you?"

"I… I loved someone. There was someone I liked a long time ago. Someone I loved and cared about. But he wouldn't notice me. I tried so hard to get his attention. In the end, he never fell for me. He would never give me his time of the way, always with his friend. In the end, we had to part ways. I couldn't accept that he would never look at me with the eyes of a lover, so I decided to make use of what little I had in myself to be a hacker. I had to severe my tie with him to work for a system that existed to protect and enforce fairness, which I wanted, and also, limited the human interactions I had."

"Go on."

"I work behind a machine. A computer. I couldn't be police. You had to smile at people. You had to work with them. Instead, I work face-to-face with the wires and systems themselves. Less people who would recognize me. Less connections, less interaction. Lesser chance that the boy I loved would recognize me. It would be awkward, too. I figuratively ran away from him. It was easier to be a hacker. I enjoyed it for a time – until-"

"Until what?"

"I saw him again and he knew it was me. It was no longer evitable that it would happen. This time, we were enemies. And I hardly knew it."

"HOMRA member?"

"Of course. I had a thing for him even since elementary. I was too shy at first. But I grew quite charismatic enough during the later years. I chose not to show my face to him out of shame that he would belittle my feelings for him. The date I set was ditched."

"What are your plans now?"

"I realized…"

She took another breath.

"It took me a long time. A few years. It seemed man is no island. Our biological clocks keep on ticking. We are creatures who are attracted by the red thread of fate or our own makings. We fall prey to the gods' cruel game, and they laugh at us. But we must rise to the farewell to arms."

She loosens her hold on the saber.

"He is HOMRA. I am SCEPTER 4. Despite everything, I can never relinquish my feelings. I feel strongly connected to him. Call it one-sided but love can find a way. If you will it. I will be the one to create my destiny. The gods may laugh at my folly, but I have to tread it."

Her courage is something fresh in a world of betrayal. Her faith is strong in herself, her words careful, spoken as the young professional who carves her own golden crown in the midst of shadows.

"I've arrived at a point, too, you know." She smiles.

"I thought about leaving SCEPTER 4, resigning. I would join HOMRA. If the King and the Flames will not accept me, I will still will it. I have to do it. I'd do anything to see and prove if the gods are playing me around. I have to at least try. Severing yourself from the world and what you fear is never the best option."

_Despite everything she had done, the Silver King had accepted her and so did the Flames when they entered her body and made her his clansman._

_Despite his uncannily excellent skills as a fighter and past, the Colorless King had accepted the man and made him his vassal, to fight. It had been the wish of both parties._

_Even if the world heavily criticized them, the seed is strong. They die to the world, and rise up stronger. What is dead never dies._

"Can you please not tell anyone else about this?"

The girl's voice is low, worried.

"Yes."

Kuroh was a man of his word.

"Your girlfriend was pretty… and quite a good fighter. Very fast."

_Pretty._

"Why are you using the past tense?"

"What's wrong with it?"

She shrugs.

"I'd rather like you to use the present tense form."

"Jeez."

"Please. I..I'm more used that way."

"Fine."

"So she's very pretty. Where is she?"

"She's not my girlfriend."

"WHAT?!"

The hacker's jaw dropped.

"Are you even kidding me? You don't have a girlfriend?"

"Yes, I don't."

"Come on." Suddenly, she becomes bright, golden, cheery with a charisma that reminds Kuroh of Shiro. Her eyes are bright – like the speedy and quick shine Sai's orbs possess. "Haven't you seriously thought of that?"

"Thought of getting a girlfriend?"

"Well, of course. I've seen your records enough to know that you have your mission. And it's now over. What's your next move now?"

"I…I never thought about it."

"I already have mine. But really, tell me about the girl. The Quick Silver."

"She… She is fast. Unpredictable."

"That's all you can say?"

"N-No." He put his fingers, gingerly massaging his temples. "It's just that we do know each other. And it just seems like a little blind spot."

At times like these – dealing about her – Ichigen's voice seemed almost remote.

"How did you meet?"

"When we were children. She was from here, I recall."

"From living with her uncle in a decent house a considerable blocks away from the bar Hiei. Riku Suzuhara operated it – until the business closed down."

"Come on. You gotta be smarter than that."

She wags her brows.

"Wait –"

He senses her creepy aura floating, a deep blue of comedic frustration.

"Just tell me, will you? A fair trade."

"Fine."

He takes a deep breath.

"She wanted to see her father. Her father was talking to my King. And she just stormed inside the house."

He closes his eyes.

"And?"

"She said she wanted her father back. For the next days, she joined us, her father, my master, and me, so she could be with her father. It did not take months for her to be enchanted with the idea of fighting. Her brothers were also considered to be taken to be vassals."

He opens his eyes again.

"Izumi-san, why are you even asking me this?"

Remembering her is never so easy for him. All that she's put him through. All that he had given her. All the time they had, together and apart.

"I've studied your case, too."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Your body language. I profiled you two, using Psychology and the art of reading body language. I was taught that by myself and a book. I took up Psychology and I was good enough to hack. With the skills, I had access to Shizume's cameras. I could see how you two acted. You two are like me and the man I loved."

"In what aspect, pray tell?"

He wipes his face.

"The bond is strong," Izumi tells him. "But you two can't admit it so openly. The connection is there, and so is the chemistry. There's something I have to get out in the open."

Her words only make his worry go heavier.

He grits his teeth.

"A fair trade, isn't it?" he manages.

"Yes."

"I suppose so."

"Come on, Kuroh. You grew up together, didn't you?"

"Yes, we did."

"But what?"

"We also grew apart."

Whose sin was it to let it drift?

Izumi shook her head.

"Come on, come on. You two know each other too well. You two have known each other as children. And now, after everything that's come and gone. Can't you admit?"

Seeing Kuroh's almost-dismayed face, she patted his shoulder more calmly.

"I-I've been so worried about her," he began. "She said she would cut me off. She said she didn't want to see me anymore. And she left, just like that. She only wanted her King."

He chewed on his lip.

"And she's disappeared ever since. It really worried me so much."

"Kuroh, don't take it too hard."

"I feel guilty over it. The drift… It was too much. I couldn't just let her go. She wanted me to. I didn't want to. When we used to be so close… She suddenly had her own world. We had different worlds, different personalities."

"I'll still listen."

"I failed her all the time. And the connection seems so weak."

"Contact her?"

"I don't believe she'll answer."

"Don't you have her number?"

"She would rather live as if I did not exist than reply to my text messages."

"But she is a damn good baker."

"Everyone has their own battlefields, Izumi. You and your data gathering, and my cooking."

She breaks out a quick smile.

* * *

- / -

_I wish she'd return home._

_I wish he'd bring her back safe and sound._

_I want my master back._

_I don't want her to suffer._

_I don't want her to lose control._

_I don't want her to lose herself._

_I want her to be happy and safe._

* * *

- / -

For tonight, the darkness falls. No one will be safe from it.

* * *

**Notes:** I hope I did clear up a few things in this chapter, especially their tight connection and what really is between them.


	10. Illusions

**Chapter 10:** Illusions

* * *

Five Days After Kuroh and Izumi's Talk

The music of the night plays, in the vinyl cases, in the fall of the black envelope that people will call the sky. Life in the endless crease of the folds of the bite of darkness becomes more complicated. It is a difficult machine, a computer of silvery wires and neutral spaces that even human find it very difficult to navigate in. In that sense, even the most simple person gets lost into this maze –and barely comes out alive, isolated from humanity.

In the HOMRA bar, we have a guest. Izumo is the first to smile, at this stranger. A few people are gathered. The members of the Red Clan are all full of the new loss of their King, the only man they will dare to die for and obey to get his wishes done. He was a man in a big sense with a big heart and soul. The suave man is almost unscathed in the new aftermath of grief.

The guest is a tall shadow, clothed in black, a man of the Faceless Men and the Night's Watch.

"Don't you have a place of your own?"

"It's too cold. I don't have anywhere to go to, like before." The stranger sits down and reaches a hand out to the table. The first Izumo notices are the cuts that line the stranger's tapered and long fingers. Cuts, bruises and a fresh wound. These fingers, he thinks to himself solemnly, are familiar. The air chokes with the stranger's smell: dirt and dried blood, iron born.

Another familiar smell.

"I don't intend to," the stranger tells him. The voice is clear but melancholic to pull off a deep voice.

"What do you want to do here then?" Yata huffs from his post. His eyes have no more fire in them, snuffed out by death and the sensation called grief and numbness.

"Drink myself out and talk a bit. I want to be able to see the Red King."

Yata squints.

Izumo knows why.

"Don't you know?"

The bar becomes quiet.

"That what?" The man's voice screeches. It becomes a mercurial sound, too. Almost a woman's voice.

"That Mikoto's dead."

More silence.

"Then I want a drink, Izumo-san. One Green Vesper for me. Life is no featherbed for me."

"How do you know his name?"

The stranger pulls his hood back down. As he pulls it, Izumo sees countless cuts. A myriad of fading bruises and cuts that cover some part of the stranger's skin.

A clean face with a cut near the chin, oval, and maturing. Eyes that shine with the joviality of a jaunty youth born of dried blood and iron and the hair – the deep green hair that was kept short. The strands were longer now. The fringe was now reaching to her collarbones and the mane was down to her shoulders. Violet eyes, lilac orbs that were at turns thoughtful and happy.

Izumo inwardly sighs. At the same time, he marvels at how fast she is growing up. She, he observes, is more tough-minded and is adapting marvelously to suit her beauty.

"Because I knew him. I knew you too. I know all of you. You took me in when I was alone."

"Your King's dead, too," Yata comments.

Her eyes blaze up at him.

"So what?"

Izumo hands her the Green Vesper.

"What do you plan to do now? You have a Clan now, don't you? Why would you want to spend the night with us?"

"I just don't feel like it, okay?" she snaps at Yata and downs the Green Vesper in one gulp. "Izumo-san, I hope you don't mind… But can you make me more?"

"How many, then? Please yourself."

"As many as twenty."

"Twenty Green Vespers coming right up!"

"Good."

"Is it the Black Dog?"

She frowns.

"What did you say?"

"I asked you if you were here because of the Black Dog. Is he the boy you were talking about, the one who was after you?"

"If you meant the ex-boyfriend? I made you think so. He's not my boyfriend."

"Then why would he be even after you in the first place?" Yata drawls.

"Because… I ran away from him. I stole something from him. I thought I was doing the right thing." She closes her eyes.

"So you took his honor, did you?"

"No."

She drinks more.

"I took a mission he had. And I was a traitor. I deserved to die, did I?"

Izumo offers her more.

"No. But you didn't die."

"Men must die, but they live first."

"True enough. Your King did not let you die. If it were not for his big heart, then you could have been killed. Anyone can be killed, girl. Be careful."

"I can be. I already am."

"Well, then, since the cat is out of the bag, fill me up about this Black Dog," Izumo orders. "I knew you were always hiding something. You've gotten a little too loose here in Shizume. You're not even supposed to be here –"

"Until that boy called Yashiro Isana came along."

They lock eyes and know it's true.

"How do you even know?"

"I'm Mikoto's right-hand man. I know things. I have my ways."

"I bet they involve tricking others into getting drunk so they can reveal more about themselves."

Izumo only smiles.

"Maybe. Maybe not," he jests.

"So you knew about me?"

"I knew you were not who you claimed you are."

"Izumo-san, I only did what I do. I did it for honor. I did it because I wanted to do something."

"I hope you rather have a good reason why."

"Why do you hope so?"

"Because you're a good kid, Sai. Nice body, not exactly the most beautiful woman but a looker one day, and some fire in you. You were not born for this. You were not born to be a girl trapped in a nunnery."

"Says the man who smokes and loves his bar the way most men love their Subaru cars more than their ex-wives."

Izumo laughs.

"So you read Murakami, huh?"

She shrugs.

"It's a nice relationship, me and the bar and the clan. Nothing too serious most of the time, and I enjoy it. It's mutual, all of us."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Let's play a game, then, Sai," he adds happily as he distributes more Green Vesper to her hands.

"What game is it then? Truth and Lies?"

"It's called ten questions."

"Game."

"Let me begin: you're the Black Fish's daughter. Am I right?"

"The Black Fish's daughter?"

She snorts.

"Of course I am!"

"Was your mother Kanako as beautiful as I've heard?" he teases. Of the weakest clan, he knew as much. He knows there is even the weakest clan of them all, the Colorless and their small retinue. Their deceased King is a man now dead, succeeded by the Black Dog. What makes them appealing is the mere presence of a powerful man and his wife.

The Black Fish, Fugaku Ishida and his wife, who was a renowned beauty made it more interesting.

He had heard about how strong Fugaku was. He had grown up with the Colorless King, a powerful warrior who belonged to a line of assassins. He was also very kind with his family and friends, and very skilled in dealing with combat, a man hardened by the environment of the Seven Clans. His spouse, on her hand, was equally strong-willed and fierce. She was reputed to be the daughter of a man descended from the River lords.

"Beautiful? She was beautiful, very much. I'm afraid I don't take much of her features. Very youthful, happy."

"Good. We have two down," Izumo jested again.

"Next question."

"Do you have a relationship with the Black Hound?"

Sai blushes prettily.

"No," she snaps. She is defensive. A mercurial woman, Izumo thinks, who is born of iron and the ice and fire.

"But you know him."

"Yes."

"How can you say you don't have a relationship with him? You blush when I mentioned him! How can a pretty young girl who works for the same King like him not like him? He is a handsome young man, Sai. How can you not?"

"I'm not just –"

"You forget." He clicks his tongue.

"You grow up together, but you have different genders. You don't feel something for him after all these years? How can you claim not to have felt something for him, not even admiration, excitement, passion? I've heard some talk that you two were friends. You two seemed to be very close."

"I don't want to elaborate."

"We're playing a game here. You agreed to it, Saika."

She licks her lips.

"I- I kissed him, that's all I remember."

"What for?"

"So I could get away from him, distract him from my real intentions. I had to leave his side to do his job. It wasn't mine."

"Where did this idea come from, then? Did you want an excuse to kiss him? You're a maiden bound to serve with him, you will marry a man like him. Most likely, you will marry him. Any girl would delight at the idea of sharing a bed with him. Have you never felt something like that ever?"

Sai becomes beet-red.

"I- I did. But the memories come out of nowhere." There is less strain now around her. It makes Izumo feel better to know she's unwinding. If it's the Black Hound, the best way is to let her remember everything to make it more in tune with the canon realities.

"Did you love him as a child? Did it spring from something?"

"I told you – I don't remember."

"Then do. It's really the Black Dog and you."

"I told you already. He and I were distant by the time I left. I only kissed him because the circumstances required it."

"Two halves of the same coin. You should rest a bit, after all those drinks." His frown delves further. "I'm betting on that pair of nasty tonfa you have that you just might get an even nastier hangover."

"How would you know?"

"Easy one. Been there, done that. You're only seventeen once, kiddo. And being seventeen, isolating yourself from what really is your link to reality isn't gonna help it."

The questions are tough to answer to the point the game is almost over.

"The game's over, Izumo-san. Thirteen questions you've asked – and it's beyond the game limit. It required ten."

He lays his cards.

"Game or not, you're always playing. I wish you can drop it, for now. You just have to wait and fix things in a way more civilly than you usually do."

"And what's that called? Betrayal? Negotiation?"

"It's called Diplomacy."

"Great. Last time I checked, it's a weapon. The Blue Clan uses it best for its own treachery."

* * *

- / -

"She isn't coming home, is she?"

As the Black Hound expects, the girl's mother is worried. She masks it in her pragmatic voice.

"I hope she will. I am very sorry, Kanako-san."

"Please, don't apologize. It's not your fault, Kuroh-kun."

"I am very sorry. It's my fault. She tracked the King, but I lost both of them. I lost the King first. Turned out he was no murderer."

"Saika tracked him?!"

Her voice is lighter.

"By some kind of wonderful accident."

"I never expected her to be this good…"

"She is. She will be able to surpass her father in time. She's amazingly loyal to her King, even if he is dead."

"But she won't talk to you."

"Yes."

"I think she's got something between you two. Maybe you can take the initiative to take better action."

"Oh, I will. I promise you."

"Does she mean anything to you, Kuroh-kun?"

He hesitates.

Does she?

"Somehow."

"Good. I hope she will."

When Mrs. Ishida has signed off the phone, he starts to look. He doesn't want to fail his oracle again – and he doesn't want to lose her.

- / -

Her resignation, she knows, to Munakata's eyes, seems a waste.

"Izumi-kun, think about it. You have potential to become a great King, if the Aura chooses you. You were very adaptable and compatible with the Blue Aura."

She scowls.

"How about a raise, then?" says Fushimi.

"Fushimi!" Seri Awashima is almost aghast.

"How about –"

"No. How about a week's leave?"

"A leave. I need to think about it."

When she goes home to her house, she turns on her internet connection and starts to do her work.

_Misaki Yata_

She types the two words into the search engine.

* * *

- / -

It seems like she's almost everywhere. The night tells him in his sleep – and in the morning, he looks around for ideas and stalks her shadow. He's seen the vision of her shape with long hair and sees the hotel the Skylark. Automatically, he drags Neko with him to it and checks in. He treats her food and occasionally cooks for her. When the cat girl asks for Sai's baking, he resorts to buying pastries.

When he checks in with the yakuza, he records the whole thing.

As he watches Neko sleep in the bed located within the four walls of the suite he checked in inside the Skylark hotel, he listens to it.

_**Yakuza guy:**__ So what do you wish to talk about?_

_**Kuroh:**__ I'm wondering if you've seen this girl. She has green hair, long legs, and violet eyes. She smells like iron._

_**Yakuza:**__ If I wasn't mistaken, I did, in this hotel and the love hotel called Alpha X._

_**Kuroh:**__ Really? How did you see her?_

_**Yakuza:**__ Don't you know? You, as a vassal, should know. She's a high class call girl. They called her Gin._

_**Kuroh:**__ How did you find her?_

_**Yakuza:**__ Some of my subordinates hired and checked out her services. We occasionally asked for women. I came to reserve a few suites here. _

_**Kuroh:**__ And so far?_

_**Yakuza:**__ They said she was quite fast. She demanded her payment before the actual performance of her work would be done. She has a very specific routine._

_**Kuroh:**__ And what is that?_

_**Yakuza:**__ You pay her, she sleeps with you. Then once you're all comfy and pretty soon, sleeping, she leaves. That's how non-fussy she is._

_**Kuroh:**__ Was she good at her job? Pretty?_

_**Yakuza:**__ My subordinates have told me yes. I was going to try to fuck her myself, but there's something about her that made me not do it. _

Kuroh turns the recorder off.

He can't bear the thought of her sleeping with other men to get money. It pains him. She's a lady. Her maidenhead is a price for marriage.

But he continues to listen again. He needs to find her.

_**Yakuza:**__ Why are you asking?_

_**Kuroh:**__ My King wanted me to take care of her and retrieve her. _

_**Yakuza:**__ Oh. So you wish to catch her tonight?_

_**Kuroh:**__ Precisely._

_**Yakuza:**__ Good luck with that. She doesn't have a client tonight. She's not here today, but tonight, she'll come back._

The tape is over.

He has to catch her tonight. He owes Shiro his servant, Sai's service.

* * *

- / -

"What did you do to support yourself?" Izumo asks as she pays him.

"I used my looks," she replies bluntly. "I turned myself in as some call girl."

"But –"

"Hush. Nothing real hurts. It's an illusion I keep up with. The men think they're making love with some call girl but in reality, they don't."

"How do you even do that?"

"Easy one. I drugged their drinks and after some kissing, knock them out. No one did me all the way."

"That's hard, kiddo. Overnight, you'll get uglier. Don't go on like that. I thought you had so much honor in you."

"Yes, I do." She smiles as she leaves the bar. "Or maybe, I don't."

* * *

**Note:** This part is tricky, but I hope you won't be disappointed.


	11. Skinship

**Chapter 11:** Skinship

* * *

**Notes:** This one can be a little…explicit. Warning for Sexy Sai and Willful Kuroh.

* * *

When hell boils over, I will love Kuroh Yatogami, she remembers thinking to herself the year she got her period, when she was fourteen. Kuroh was fifteen, and beginning to be fetching to look at. Meanwhile, she remembers looking a lot like a piece of meat, even then: the breasts and the hips and suddenly, she was a female specimen.

"You have teats now and a woman's shape so please straighten yourself," Kuroh tells her that day. He goes to her and suddenly gropes her back and her hips. "Watch the posture. You have a nice figure and it should not go to waste."

"Leave me –"

His hands are on her hips all of a sudden.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

"Saika-sama, your hips –"

She tries to kick him but he refuses to loosen his hold on her.

"KUROH!"

He looks at her, blushing.

"I-I'm sorry!"

She resisted the urge to kick him.

"Never hold my hips again!"

"Saika-sama, please be careful with how you carry yourself. You're a woman now."

Holding her hips and holding her – all while she was slouching and wearing a yukata.

Her long hair fell loose across her face, wildly as she liked it.

"So what if I were a woman?"

"It makes a lot of things different. We will no longer share the same hot spring. We will no longer stay in the same bed. You need to be more womanly now. The men around will no longer look at you as a child."

"Tch."

Behind her, she felt Kuroh's hands on her hair. He was brushing it.

"Hey! What are you doing with my –"

He smiled.

"Brushing it. I'm going to put it up. If you don't have your hair fixed up, your mother will certainly scold you."

Just like the past two days since she had gotten her period.

"Seriously. Stop it."

Kuroh frowns.

"I wish I were a child again," she quips.

"Why?"

"Because things are easier. No big changes! No periods! No fussing!"

Kuroh smiles.

When her hair is done, he pats her head.

"Don't frown so much. It makes you look less pleasant."

"Kuroh."

"What is it?"

"Tell me more about these changes."

"Men will no longer see you as a human. They will see a woman." He paused. "You will be eligible for marriage. Your mother wishes you to be married off to the Blue King, if possible. Or to flatter your ancestry, to the next Colorless King."

"But what if no one asks for my hand?"

"There will always be a man."

"But –"

"There will be candidates. Even me."

"You?"

"Yes. So if no one takes you from the Clan, then you might be mine. I will marry you one day, out of duty than love."

"That sucks a lot."

"Sometimes, from duty, our feelings can become love if we choose it."

"What is love, then?"

"Love is the decision to accept, tolerate and care and protect as well as fight for a person who weighs more than gold to you."

Saika licked her red lips.

"Duty. Honor."

Kuroh smiled.

"Your father's words."

"Then if you will take me to the marriage bed, let me ask you: What is honor, compared to a woman's love?"

Silence.

"I want a woman who is kind, understanding and gentle."

"Then that is not me. I don't wish to marry you. I will marry for love. As dutiful as I am, I will marry for love."

"That, Saika, is entirely your choice."

* * *

- / -

"Yata-san."

Izumi practices it all over in front of the mirror.

"I would like to talk to you."

She remembers everything that Yata has done with her. She remembers smiling down on him even when Fushimi is the only one Yata has eyes for.

"Yata-san, I really like you. I would like to join HOMRA."

- / -

He remembers her as a child.

The earthquake.

They were ten, awkward and cute. Back to the winter when she had grown her hair so long Kuroh admired it very much.

The floors beneath where the house stood just shook. Suddenly, Kuroh became very aware. It had been almost a homely winter. Saika kept scaring him with the words that winter is coming. When she fell asleep, he just watched her, admiring the long nest of strands that became her mane.

"SAIKA!"

He kept waking her up.

"SAIKA!"

"Mmmm…. I want cheese," she sputtered in her sleep. She was sprawled out on Kuroh's bed, looking too comfortable. She wore his pyjamas and her brother's shirt.

"SAIKA!"

The house shook harder.

It was like being pounded on by a giant.

"SAIKA!"

"KUROH!" she yelled in her sleep. "I'm coming there!"

He hit her softly on her arm.

"SAIKA!"

When she opened her eyes, she was really scared.

She jumped and held him very tight.

As the earthquake raged on, he just held her.

"Don't let go!" Saika whispered, her head pressed to his chest. She clung hard at the cloth that covered his upper body. "I-I'm so scared!"

"Shhh, stay calm. I'll catch if you fall."

She sniffs.

It is a loud sniff.

"I won't ever leave you. I never will."

"Even when I get married?"

He nods.

"Even when there is the bedding ceremony?"

"Yes. If you wish me to."

"What if the suitors will come take me away?"

"I will chase after them if you wish to, my lady."

"What if they will force themselves on me?"

The pounding of the calamity continues its rage as they talk in the darkness.

"Then I will chase them away."

"What if I am forced to?"

"Then I will be with you. I will accompany you in your life with your betrothed. I will keep you safe."

"Really? You will do that for me?" she whispers.

"Yes, my lady."

She whimpers.

"Why would you do that for me?"

"Your father is Ichigen-sama's friend and vassal. Ichigen-sama prizes him. As his daughter, I have to protect you the way your father protects Ichigen-sama. The Black Fish is a man who wishes to protect."

"Is that all?"

"There are more reasons. Ichigen-sama is fond of you."

She seems to be delighted to know their master is fond of her.

How can he not be fond of her?

She is smart, talented and cute and amusing but willful. She is a good rider, does her duties well enough if you asked her. She sings for him when he wants her to. She helps in the cooking and sews. She writes poetry of the mountains and adores her King. And she is a girl with a soul of steel, wild and spirited.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"But why does he not tell me?"

"Because to him, some things are better left unsaid."

A Chinese vase falls on the ground.

"If there's no more men left to chase after me, would you consider me?"

"Consider you?"

"Yes."

"As what?"

"As a…"

She blushes.

"As a what?"

"As a bride."

He chuckles.

"If it pleases you."

"Are you telling me the truth?"

"Yes. It is inevitable."

"Why else do you want to please me?"

"It is my duty."

She comprehends it.

"Is it your honor?"

"Yes."

"Are they your favorite words, Kuroh?"

"Yes."

He chuckles.

"Duty. Family. Honor."

"They should be your words if you become the King."

"What if you become the King, my lady?"

"I will think my words will be _Unbent, Unbroken_ or something about honor."

"They suit you."

Her hold on his shirt tightens the more.

"Why else are you so adamant to protect me?"

"Because you are my friend. One of the people close to me. I do not wish to lose you. I do not wish you to die."

"How would you define this thing?"

"Aah. We are friends. We are pals. Is that so simple?"

"But do you think one day we will be a man and woman to each other?"

"How –"

"You will see me as a woman. I will see you as a man."

"Aah, Saika, it's too early to talk about it."

"But still! Can you promise me something?"

"Anything, my lady."

"Promise me you will see me as a woman and like me as one."

"I promise."

"Treat me as one, please?"

"Yes, I do."

"Goody!" She kisses him on his cheek.

"If I ask you to kiss me, will you?"

"Y-Yes."

"Everything all for me?"

"Yes."

She sighs.

"Oh, Kuroh-kun, why can't I just marry you?"

Suddenly, it feels so right to be doing this with her.

"Then marry me, Saika."

* * *

- / -

He has to have his way with her.

It's the only way he can save her. Book a night with Ishida and spend the night with her. The thought of her feeding other men her precious maidenhead is unpleasant. He would rather be the one to take her maidenhead all by himself rather than have other men steal it from her.

He knows that people might watch him. This is a love hotel. But he knows people have their ways.

Even with Izumi out of the way, he has to comply with the terms of the love hotel. He has to be amorous with her.

"I would like to sleep with Gin," he tells the person he needs to see in order to see Gin.

"How much yen?"

Kuroh sighs inwardly.

"One hundred."

The man bats an eyelash.

"That's too low. She's not some tasteless hooker."

"Three hundred."

"Too low."

"Five hundred yen."

"Nope. Not enough."

"One thousand."

"Tch."

"Ten thousand?"

"Ten thousand's good."

He's finally secured.

He doesn't need to tell Neko. Besides, he does not doubt her mother will understand.

"Y-Yes. Someone wants to sleep with you tonight."

The man is talking on a phone, then he turns to Kuroh.

"How many hours do you want to see her?"

"About…"

He really has to take his time. How many hours does even actual sex occur in?

"How many's the most they used of her?" he mouths.

"Two," mouths the man.

"Five," Kuroh decides.

The man continues talking and in a few minutes, the deal is settled.

"We're done."

"And?"

"She's waiting for you."

Kuroh's a little relieved.

"But first, you need a trip to the drugstore."

"Why should I?"

The man breaks into laughter.

"You're gonna sleep with her, right?"

"Yes."

"Buy some condoms. Large ones."

As he leaves, Kuroh blushes.

* * *

- / -

Shit.

Someone wishes to sleep with her for real.

Sai feels nervous as she changes into her clothes, a new person: Gin. She replaces her ripped jeans and jackets for the silver minidress, the hair extensions and the high heels that Izumo made her wear.

Underneath, she wears a decent pair of underwear.

For some reason, she misses Kuroh. She misses his cooking. She misses his smiles. She misses her old memories of him.

She's been thinking a lot.

The kisses. The promises. The way he looks at her. Does he even love her?

Does she even consider him precious?

Just because she has the Silver Aura doesn't mean she's taken a level in badassery. Just because she's playing a call girl doesn't mean she's one.

She realizes that she's at the end of her circuit. She wants to sleep after all these days running around. She's been a bad girl. She's a trouble maker.

Kuroh had been her world. But he had crashed down when she had grown into a woman. He was becoming into a man, too. A man of honor, and she a woman of her own will and mind.

_Deep inside, maybe, you always did love him_, Izumo had told her. He may be a man and she a woman, but the connection is between them and stronger than ever. It's been telling her all along that she did have strong feelings for him. If he even reciprocates them, then it's a miracle.

She wonders what it would be like if he were truly going to take her to their marriage bed if he marries her out of duty. He will do his duty, but will he love her on that night? Will he carry her off and enjoy the act or just do it submissively? All along, she knows she wants a man who will love her like a troubadours and poets love their muses.

She had him promised to her.

But did he promise to love her?

She hopes he loves her back.

She walks out of her suite, confident and wishing.

* * *

- / -

He passes her by.

She is a beautiful woman, bound to surpass her mother. Her hair is tempting to touch, her skin soft to see. In her short minidress, her legs are muscled and long. Her long lashes are very dark. Her face is glowing, pretty to look at. Her features are more womanly, willful. Her hips are good, he finds himself thinking. So at some point, she did have a lot to risk to do this.

She is a woman – and someone else.

She opens a door and he follows.

When he spots her there, she sits in a wooden chair. Her left leg is on top of the right. The minidress rides up a bit, but the pose does wonders to make her look tragic. The neckline shows some cleavage off her breasts.

She pouts.

He decides to play along.

So he goes in and drags the door.

He locks it.

When he looks back at her, he smirks then goes to her.

He pushes her against the bed, landing in it with a tumble. He has to be serious, amorous, lusty. She doesn't reply, only with her blazing eyes. Then he inhales her scent and then pushes his lips against hers. Soft wet sounds form and then he takes this chance to act better. He pretends that he is reacting to his own faked and pretended lust, letting his hand brush over her bare back and her sides.

This time, she kisses him back.

He kisses her more roughly, more passionately. He cannot afford to be gentle. He has to be a predator to catch his prey. Her hands suddenly are at his shoulders. He lowers his hands down to her lower body.

She's faster than him.

Her fingers have him out of his coat, now working to his buttons, baring his chest. Should he undress her?

He fumbles with her dress, his hands between her breasts and legs, unsure of what to do. Does he take her maidenhead as if she were his? Does he just kiss her and make her know that it is Kuroh she is kissing?

But as he kisses her longer, the illusion is breaking. Suddenly, he realizes that deep inside, they are connected to each other. He remembers the lycoris petals that he gives to her the night that their master died. It is a pity he never saw her this beautiful. With the illusion shattering, his thoughts become more natural. Does he desire her?

Does he respect her?

The answer is becoming more obvious.

She kisses him, surely. She loves him.

And he?

He sees her as a woman. He sees her as his potential love, his lady wife.

Maybe he does love her.

That is why he does this.

She wraps her legs around him, kissing longer. She is groaning, almost crying. He kisses her neck and back to her cheekbones, her collarbones, then her lips.

Suddenly, he finds himself putting his hand on her thigh and breaking the kiss.

"Ku-Kuroh," she breathes, her eyes shining. "What is this, consummation?" But she shakes her head. "You're already half-naked."

"My lady."

Suddenly, everything makes sense.

She is in front of him, one strand falling off her bare white shoulder. Her lips are chapped, his hand on her thigh, the buttons of his shirt unbuttoned. His coat is tossed on the ground. She feels warm, he embracing her, the combined warmth appreciated. Her dress is almost off her.

They both are half-naked, lost in the game.

"My lord."

"My lady."

"I am very sorry for ravishing you."

She lets the strap fall beyond the region of her pale white arms. "Do you wish or not want to continue it?"

"I wanted to see you," he comments, buttoning his shirt. "I want to bring you back, Saika. Is your maidenhead intact?"

"Yes. It might be the opposite if you actually continued the kiss, my lord. What else do you wish to tell me, my lord?"

_I love you._

But no.

"I want to tell you that I wanted to tell you something tomorrow. I want to bring you home."

Home. She wants home back.

"Anything else?"

He puts his coat back on.

"You're very beautiful, Saika. A woman."

When the door closes, she sighs.

_Kuroh, I think I love you._

* * *

**Note:** Should I continue with the lemon? Ughhh, we all know he's a man of honor. One-two more chappie to go.


	12. Reality

**Chapter 12:** Reality

"What have you been up to?"

It is Izumi who's calling.

"Ah, I've tracked her down."

"You sound flustered. What did you do with her? Did you kiss her? Have sex with her?"

He almost ravished her.

"Whoa. You're awfully quiet."

"It's not really your business, is it, Izumi-san?"

"Let me guess: you two had sex."

"Hmmm…"

"Jeez. It seems like you two had sex. Who moaned louder? You? Her?"

"For someone who is a virgin, it seems you know more about the subject."

"Hey! But really, I know what you look like now. You're all red. Awwww."

"I think you hacked the citywide cameras, did you?"

"Yes. Of course. I also tracked her down."

"Fine. I kissed her."

"Not bad."

"I had to get her out of there."

"I think you've already convinced her."

"Huh?"

"She's already cutting her ties off that call girl club. Be glad, Kuroh."

"How about you?"

"I appealed to Izumo-san already, via Seri Awashima-san. Seems like there is some possibility that I can get a place at HOMRA. Problem is, there's no King."

"Is it for Yata?"

"Yes. I made plans to see him sometime. I really need to talk to him."

We, he thinks, all along had been living in the shadows of the ones we love. She, Yata, and Saika and me.

* * *

- / -

"Izumo-san?"

"Yes. You sound better. What's your next step?"

"I resigned."

"Good. A pretty girl like you has no business selling her body for money."

"I thought maybe I should study and bake sometime. I have to face my duty as a Clan member. I've been running from it all the time. My mother's worried about me. My father is growing old, too. I owe it to my King… And the ones I love."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"You sound like you're in love."

"I think I am."

"Is it the Black Dog?"

"Izumo-san!"

"Jeez. Totsuka would glad to hear that!"

"I hope I can keep in contact with you while waiting."

"It's really no problem, Sai. I'll miss you."

"So will I. I'll miss Totsuka."

"He'll miss you, too."

* * *

- / -

"You've grown up together, yet only now you've grasped everything. Why does this happen?" Izumi asks.

"Because she is a woman and I am a man."

"Then that relationship is bound to happen." She shakes her head and pops a French fry in her mouth.

"I remember the first time I was SCEPTER 4 and I was tasked to monitor everything with the camera and my hacking skills. I remember seeing things. They were so many. I saw men killing one another. I saw men raping women and dishonoring them. I saw men stealing from above and below. And I also saw trials, you know. I remembered that time I also remembered I considered studying law before going to study Information Technology. I was overwhelmed."

She sighs.

"You know, suddenly, I realized that my world was nothing to the world that really was. In the night, the things are different. In the morning and afternoon, it's red, vivid. I saw evil and pain and hatred and a cycle of a game of thrones. My world, my life had two parts alongside that other world. It could be that they mattered little in this cycle of humanity's evil. Or perhaps, it was separated. It's like the two sides of a wall."

Kuroh nods on and drinks a cup of hot chocolate.

"Why are you saying this?"

"Because I've been thinking about everything that's happened. From my own failure to confess to Yata, to Saika's arrival here in Shizume, your backgrounds, our involvements… It's been a big world. It's almost amazing. I was gonna sum it up."

"And your conclusion?"

"That it's hard to put into words."

They both laugh.

"You were right," Kuroh murmurs.

"That what?"

"That she has strong feelings for me. And I do hold her someone close. When we were kissing… It almost felt natural. It was like before, during the time we were children and we really were almost lovers."

"Huh?"

"I remembered this memory. There was a huge earthquake when she was ten and me eleven. It was winter, and she was sleeping. I did not want to be alone and I woke her up. She really got scared, and I hugged her. She clung to me for ten hours while the earthquake came through. We were so close we could hear each other's heartbeat. Like we were one, meant to be. And we talked. She was so scared, even then. She was asking me stuff. She asked me to stay and I say I did. Because she meant so much to me, I promised her that I would protect her."

"Go on."

"In the end, I felt like I loved her. So when she asked me to love her, I said I would. I was thinking what the price of honor was if you had a woman's love. That woman would be her."

"And now you love her."

"I think I do."

"Boy, that's certainty. How do you see her now?"

"I see her as a woman now."

"And what else now?"

"I think she knows it, too."

His phone hums. He picks it up and reads the newest message.

_Kuroh,_

_I'm very sorry for everything. I want to tell you something._

_-Sai_

She knows her transgressions.

He understands everything. She has grown up in this world.

* * *

- / -

The train is calling.

The sky is starting to clear.

The night is ready to leave.

Almost.

* * *

- / -

"Kanako?"

"Yes, Fugaku?"

"Saika's coming home."

The woman smiles.

"Is she with him?"

"Yes. He's bringing her and another Clan member."

Kanako is happy.

"Good! I have missed them so much!"

* * *

- / -

When she notices the old pictures of her that Totsuka had taken among her things to be packed, she hugs them to her chest, then packs them nicely.

She lets loose of the horrid hair extensions and looks at the mirror.

Her face is more matured, her cheekbones high and nicer than before. Her skin is glowing, from the hot water. Her hair has gotten darker and longer, now waving to her shoulders.

_I had grown up and I didn't notice._

Shiro.

Neko.

Mikoto.

Totsuka.

Izumo.

She would always remember those people in the back of her heart. She owed them this much.

- / -

"I went to the Skylark, right?"

"Yup."

"I remembered I had a dream like that. I dreamed about Saika and me meeting in a hotel."

"And it came true. Wow."

"I know."

* * *

- / -

"I wanted to see you. I am very sorry for the behavior I've put up in this city."

"Very…courteous of you."

Reisi Munakata is a traditional man. As she talks to him in her courtesy, he seems impressed. He grins but is a sophisticated smiler. He is not bad to look at. He is strong, stronger than Kuroh. Perhaps, she would not mind marrying Reisi for a change.

"So you really are Fugaku Ishida's offspring."

"Yes."

"The only female, perhaps?" He pours tea in her cup for her.

"Yes."

"I see. You take after your father. The combat skills." He flashes her a calculating smile. He can be a bully, her father has warned her. "And nowadays, your mother. She is a celebrated beauty."

Saika smiles and has the grace to blush prettily. Munakata admits to himself she is not a bad catch. She is starting to show the beauty that her mother possessed ages ago. She is wearing a yukata that shows off her lilac eyes and her hair is neatly twisted up, exposing her well-shaped pale neck. The kimono shows off her nice body. Her chest is not too big, but petite and well-shaped enough.

"You are too kind, my lord."

"I am only telling the truth. Your mother and uncle approached me for a possible betrothal with you. I admit, I was not impressed back then with your appearance. I guess I am reconsidering it."

She laughs softly.

"There is no need to, Munakata-san. I like someone already."

"But please, it will be my honor."

He is starting to enjoy her presence. _Cute, courteous enough, skilled. Not bad._

"I hope to get to know you more when you come back for your King."

"Me too. I just regret behaving badly."

"At least you have matured a bit, did you?"

"Yes, I did."

* * *

- / -

He gets the train tickets at midnight, mailed by an anonymous.

When he looks at them, he recognizes some flimsy handwriting tapered on a piece of paper attached to it.

_I love you, Kuroh-kun._

_-Saika_

He finds himself smiling.


	13. Lycoris

**Chapter 13: Lycoris**

* * *

"What is dead never dies."

-George R.R. Martin-

* * *

He wants to go back to his home.

He wants to feel the country wind around his face. He wants to taste Kanako-san's cooking. He misses her cooking, he misses her ways. He misses the manly presence of Fugaku-san. He calls their presence home. Because it is home. It's a part of his reality already.

Neko is solemn.

"What about Sai?" she whines.

"Sai will be there."

"Will she cook?"

"Yes."

"Will she bake for us?"

"Of course."

Neko is delighted to hear that Sai will bake. It feels like old times, when Sai was feistier and quite prickly-headed, when Shiro was still alive and up and Neko was fiercely loyal to him.

"Will we return?"

"Maybe. Maybe no."

Neko casts a sad look at the city.

"Neko, we have to leave now."

* * *

- / -

She no longer feels like she hates or once upon a time, had hated the blue city. She feels like it's inside there, crammed inside her belly.

The lights are no longer faceless, but shining. It is natural, no longer artificial.

This scene looks so familiar but it is not at all.

Maybe our eyes are tricking us.

Maybe this is all a lie.

But no.

It is reality.

Even if the glass windows are separating her from the familiar country sights, she knows better than that.

The song Am I Supposed to Be Sorry is on the radio again.

Instead of scowling like the old Saika would do, Saika smiles and thinks of everything that has happened to her. This is where Kuroh and she had kissed. This is where she had betrayed him. This was the start of the adventure she had had. She had left for Shizume City, and found a lot of things.

There had been Totsuka to aid her in her journey.

There was Mikoto to accommodate her.

There was Shiro who during his brief reign, had welcomed her presence and made her happy for a while. He was such a clever boy.

Izumo had consoled her for the past times.

According to what she had heard, the other councils of the Clan had broken up when they heard of the Red Clan member's murder.

And she had known it all along.

She didn't mind.

All of a sudden she feels sentimental. She feels tired. She is full. She's exchanged words with the people of the night. She has changed over the days. She feels older, more mature. She feels somehow stronger, but tired. The time has taken its toll on her but she doesn't doubt at all. She remembers everything. She tries to – it will be the justice to the dead who she remembers were so alive.

Smiling Shiro.

Maniacally strong Mikoto.

The smell of soba tries to wake her up.

The smell of rice.

The songs that Totsuka plays for her.

When she sees the last spots of the dark, she sighs.

She remembers what is it like to be in a game of thrones. She remembers the smell of dried blood, steel and the smell of honor. She remembers the snow, the cold. She remembers the grief and the fendi furs she has taken.

Her heart beats stronger and surely for the ones she loves. Kuroh, she loves dearly. She wants him to love her.

She has underestimated him in the game.

She smiles.

The snow makes her remember the fateful earthquake that intertwined them together.

"_Will you protect me?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Kuroh, will you love me if I want you to?"_

"_Yes, my lady."_

Back then, she was such a child. He had been a boy, innocent.

But things change.

Some just don't.

Maybe time just made it more complicated. It did not occur to her that their relationship was just moving forward unconsciously. It would transition to what would become a relationship between a man and woman.

When did she hint it? She remembers seeing it all.

* * *

- / -

"You will love me, right, Kuroh?" she asks impatiently, a girl of fourteen, in her school uniform.

"If you wish it, my lady."

She giggles, then gets all serious.

"Do you see me as a woman?" she demands.

"As a pal."

Her face falls.

"How do you see me then?"

"I see you as a pal."

Saika growls at him.

"Maybe one day, you'll like me as a woman."

* * *

- / -

"Kuroh, do you think of me as a friend or foe?"

"As a friend. I have evaluated everything I know about you."

"What is your thought?"

"I think you are a good person. You can be kind. You understand. You are worthy to be a vassal."

* * *

- / -

"Do you like me, Kuroh?"

Her last phone call after she meets with Reisi Munakata.

"As what?"

"A woman. Not as a friend."

Her teeth grounds.

"But do you like me? As a pal?"

She sighs.

"Is it not obvious? We are attracted to each other." She smiles.

"Well?"

"Kuroh Yatogami! I like you."

"As what?"

"I like you not as a pal, but as a man."

* * *

- / -

She finds herself not restless.

Maybe the memories have been too much.

Maybe.

The warm air is coming.

The winter has come, the hard times are here, but she knows she can handle it.

When does liking become a serious matter?

When does growing up mean complications?

Why is growing up so difficult?

Why is loyalty something to be compromised?

Why is the world so different?

Why is the world she lives in a small part to what is really happening?

The answers can be answered.

All those questions, all so long ago.

She remembers her anger at herself on Ichigen's death. She remembers grief when Shiro died.

But she remembers.

What is dead does not die.

It only grows stronger.

As Shiro will rise again, and she would be the knight her King asked for.

She has love on her side.

She has Shiro.

She has Neko.

She has Izumo with her.

Eating ice cream.

Eating ramen.

Eating cake.

Wearing yukatas.

Feeding Neko and Shiro.

Fighting Fushimi and Yata.

Memories.

Skinship.

Pain.

Grief.

Loss.

Alienation.

Isolation.

Anger.

Karma.

Maybe it is tiring.

It is like you carry the whole world and you have your own little world.

She yawns and puts her head on the table.

As her eyes close, her lips curve.

_Kuroh, I am waiting for you._

* * *

- / -

She sees she is inside the same suite with the Skylark.

In front of her is the Faceless Man, reflected in the mirror. What surrounds her is red and black with lycoris petals that fall.

"Who are you? What are you to me?" she whispers.

"I am not you. I weep and watch when you don't have the strength to do it yourself. I know you as well as you know yourself."

She touches her Faceless Man in the mirror, hooded.

"When will you show yourself?"

"I think you are ready to see."

When the shadow lifts his hood, the mirror breaks.

It is a shadow of herself, younger and angry, wounded.

It shatters into a shadow on the wall.

"Where are you now?"

"We're a part of you. We may move on but we'll always be inside your heart. We are you."

"Really?"

"Yes."

The shadows fade away.

She suddenly sees the mountains.

"You are no longer in isolation. You have come to terms with yourself."

What remains is a single lycoris flower that is in her lap.

As she looks around, she sees a shadow of Kuroh following around.

* * *

- / -

She has fallen asleep.

* * *

- / -

"Yata, how are you?"

"I-I'm fine."

He's still horrible with girls. Damn it, Izumi thinks good-naturedly.

"I know it's too much, but I've made plans. I also want to take the time with you." Izumi beams.

"Y-Yeah."

Izumi giggles.

"I want to tell you that I like you. But I'm not forcing you to like me back. I want to take it slowly. You see, back in high school, I liked you a lot back even then…"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I didn't think you'd understand. I miscalculated."

She clears her throat.

"I feel sorry. I've avoided you for years because of that. I couldn't tell you."

"I thought you liked Fushimi back."

"Not in a million years. That's why I'm telling you now. I quit SCEPTER4 because of you."

Yata locks eyes with her meticulously.

"Don't be obliged," Izumi warns him. "One step at a time."

"What do you mean one step at a time?"

"I want to start small. I really like you, kiddo. I avoided you for years. You didn't even know. That's why I want to join HOMRA."

"Because of me?"

"Yes. It's warm, isn't it? It's warm there."

"That's because our King has a big heart."

* * *

- / -

Kuroh feels almost giddy.

He can't wait to see her, to hold her.

For the first time, he looks to his future. He looks to seeing her smile and light up for him. He misses her cooking. He wants to taste her baking. He wants to see her happy with her family once again. In her father's arms, training. In her mother's smile, baking with the glee that became her so long ago.

"Why is she not with us?"

Neko is whining.

But he doesn't mind.

* * *

- / -

When he enters the restaurant where it all began, it feels so natural. She is seated even in the same seat.

They have changed greatly.

She is more mature. Her cheekbones are more prominent. Her hair is longer, and she is less indecent now. She is garbed in a long gray sweatshirt and black leggings with sneakers and an open trench coat. Her head rests on the table, comfortable next to what seems like a cup of Vitamin Water. On her head, cutely lies a bright red lycoris flower.

Lycoris.

What a perfect flower for her.

He had crowned her as his lady with this flower once, he recalls.

When Neko sees her, she is delighted.

As Kuroh slips in beside her, he takes the time to admire her features. She is tired, no doubt. She will want to rest for a while. After everything that has been said and done, not even she can handle it all awake. Every man needs sleep. Her neck is still a girl's neck but it is a perfect curve.

She is truly pretty.

He kisses her softly on the cheek, with the courtesy of a knight and pats her arm gently.

"Saika, it's morning," he whispers.

* * *

- / -

When she wakes up, she finds herself smiling.

She hugs Kuroh tight, like the children they had been even back then.

Smiles are welcomed, and the mood is light, nostalgic and warm. There is no more tension.

"K-Kuroh!"

He puts a finger to her lips.

"I like you as a woman, now, Saika."

"What are you going to do now?"

"We will wait," he assures her.

"I have plans to become stronger."

"So have I."

"And I think I should tell my father a match between us is perfectly possible…"

"Yes, my lady."

As they talk happily, Kuroh feels like Shiro is smiling on them with Ichigen-sama. It feels like he is putting on a new shirt after a bath.

The future is theirs now.

"Anyway, we –"

"Hush now. I know what to say. All men die but they must live first."

* * *

- / -

As the dawn breaks outside, the sun shines on the knight and his lady. The clouds brighten up for the first time in days. The lavish morning lights scoops everything up and makes it suddenly so bright.

As we watch, we see the doors of the restaurant open.

Kuroh and Sai hold hands as they walk out into the light.

What happens to them is like the quote Sai comments that all men must die but they truly must live first.

It is like the darkness. First you must see the darkness then you must see the light. Together, they are no longer alone. Together, their minds are buried with the answers and questions they have gotten from the people of the night. Some questions are answered. Some questions are left to the wind.

Out there, what waits is a light area. It lies beyond everything and within everything that they know.

The darkness recedes, but there will be another time to see it come again. Certainly not for now and not for a long time.

**.**end**.**

**Author's Note:** Thank you everyone for the journey in writing this. I had a nice time writing **Trouble Maker**. I want to thank everyone for supporting this fanfic all the way for three months, especially when I was running out of ideas and I was trying to work up a lot on character development. I hope that even if **Trouble Maker** is over, you will be able to remember it a lot. I wish the fic would be equally as memorable as the anime itself.

With Season 2 coming up on October, I certainly will be watching. Saika will get her own changes soon, but I won't be making a sequel, maybe a oneshot or two in my DA account. I hope you all loved Saika as a character. Depicting her as a sexy woman is difficult.

-Nikki


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